6./. 2.3, 

LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON.  N.  J. 

Presented  by 


*IVn  e.  C\u-vW>r 


Division. 


Section. 


QJL.t . 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/prayerthatjesustOOstra 


THE  PRAYER  THAT  JESUS  TAUGHT 


✓ 


THE  PRAYER  THAT 
JESUS  TAUGHT 


BY 


THOMAS  CHALMERS  STRAUS 


1923 

THE  STRATFORD  COMPANY 

Publishers 

BOSTON,  MASS. 


Copyright,  1923 

The  STRATFORD  CO.,  Publishers 
Boston,  Mass. 


The  Alpine  Press,  Boston,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 


Contents 


Chapter  Pape 

i  God  Our  Father . 1 

ii  The  Spirit  of  Reverence . 14 

in  The  Coming  of  the  Father’s  Kingdom  .  .  .  26 

iv  ITow  the  Father’s  Will  is  To  Be  Done  ...  39 

v  The  Daily  Bread . 50 

vi  Forgiveness  Human  and  Divine . 64 

vii  Temptation  and  Deliverance . 78 


CHAPTER  I 


! 


God  Our  Father 

After  this  manner,  pray  ye :  ‘  ‘  Our  Father  who  art 

in  heaven. ” 

TWO  questions  have  held  a  prominent 
place  in  the  religious  thought  of  our 
time.  The  first  is,  What  is  Christianity? 
The  second  is :  What  is  the  distinct  contribution 
of  Christianity  to  the  religious  heritage  of  man¬ 
kind? 

To  the  first  of  these,  the  answer  must  be  es¬ 
sentially  this :  Christianity  is  the  religious 
message  which  has  been  brought  to  man  in  and 
through  Jesus  Christ.  That  which  has  origi¬ 
nated  from  Jesus;  what  Jesus  taught  and  lived 
and  manifested;  what  Jesus  did  and  experi¬ 
enced  and  attested;  what  was  in  Jesus  and 
shone  forth  and  spoke  out  from  him — this  is 
Christianity  in  its  inmost  being.  In  proportion 
as  we  interpret  Jesus  aright  to  ourselves,  we 
grasp  the  Christian  message.  In  proportion  as 


[l] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


we  interpret  Jesus  aright  to  the  world,  we  give 
the  Christian  message. 

It  is  freely  conceded  that  historical  develop¬ 
ments  are  not  to  be  ignored  or  belittled.  Our 
own  ideas  of  Christianity  have  come  to  us  large¬ 
ly  along  the  lines  of  these  developments.  The 
movement  back  to  Christ  must  not  lead  us  to 
reject  all  the  fruitage  of  Christian  thought 
which  the  centuries  have  stored.  But  all  this 
fruitage  must  undergo  revaluation.  The  test  of 
vital  agreement  with  Christ  must  be  constantly 
and  unsparingly  applied.  Accretions  that  are 
out  of  accord  with  Christ  must  be  resolutely  cut 
away.  Presentations  which  fail  to  embody 
Christ’s  vital  teaching  must  be  resolutely  dis¬ 
carded  as  inadequate.  The  testing  of  historical 
developments  is  indispensable  if  Christianity  is 
to  minister,  in  the  full  measure  of  its  potency, 
to  the  world  of  today. 

If  now  we  ask  further,  what  is  the  definite 
contribution  of  Christianity,  thus  conceived,  to 
the  religious  heritage  of  the  world,  we  shall 
hear  a  manifold  answer,  as  different  groups  or 
individual  minds  give  us  their  impressions  of 
Jesus  and  emphasize  one  or  another  phase  of 


[2] 


God  Our  Father 


his  teaching.  But  amidst  all  the  diversity,  which 
in  itself  witnesses  to  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ,  there  will  be  one  reply  upon  which  agree¬ 
ment  will  be  general.  That  reply  will  be :  The 
Fatherhood  of  God.  Whatever  other  contribu¬ 
tions  Christianity  has  made  to  our  religious 
possessions,  this  one  stands  out  with  especial 
clearness. 

The  Fatherhood  of  God  stands  in  the  fore¬ 
front  of  the  Christian  message.  Its  distinctness 
and  prominence  in  Christianity  make  it  pre¬ 
eminently  a  Christian  teaching  rather  than  a 
general  truth  common  to  all  religions.  This 
teaching  is  sometimes  found  outside  of  Christi¬ 
anity,  it  is  true.  But  where  it  exists  outside  of 
Christianity,  it  appears  only  in  dim  and  obscure 
form.  Glimpses  of  it  were  caught,  by  men  of 
specially  gifted  insight,  even  before  Christi¬ 
anity  arose.  But  it  was  never  a  part  of  the 
popular  belief.  The  few  superior  minds  that 
had  some  idea  of  it  never  developed  and  ap¬ 
plied  it.  It  never  was  held  or  taught  as  a  living 
faith.  One  classic  instance  of  a  mind  outside  of 
Christianity  that  had  some  glimpse  of  the  teach¬ 
ing  is  brought  to  our  notice  in  the  New  Testa- 


13] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


ment.  This  is  the  Greek  poet,  Cleanthes, 
the  Stoic,  from  whom  Paul  quoted  in  his  speech 
on  the  Areopagus  in  Athens.  Paul  was  seeking 
some  common  standing  ground  on  which  to  meet 
the  curious  audience  that  gathered  about  him 
on  that  occasion,  and  he  found  it  in  the  line  from 
the  Hymn  of  Cleanthes:  “For  we  also  are  his 
offspring.”  Paul  quoted  this  as  against  idolatry 
and  as  leading  to  his  doctrine  of  the  spirituality 
of  God.  But  while  the  Greek  poet  had  said  this, 
its  meaning  and  implications  were  not  worked 
out.  The  teaching  had  no  influence  on  the  relig¬ 
ious  thought  of  the  people.  It  was  not  wrought 
into  their  faith.  So,  in  general,  while  it  is  true 
that  the  idea  of  the  divine  Fatherhood  is  not 
wholly  absent  from  religious  utterances  outside 
of  Christianity,  the  fact  remains  that  it  is 
through  Christianity  that  this  conception  has 
become  a  living  factor  in  religious  faith. 

It  is  Jesus  Christ  who  has  given  this  teaching 
its  distinctness  and  prominence.  It  is  he  who 
has  set  it  in  the  forefront.  In  his  teaching, 
“The  Father”  is  the  characteristic  title  for 
God.  Sixteen  times  in  that  body  of  teaching 
which  we  call  the  sermon  on  the  mount — sixteen 


[4] 


God  Our  Father 


times  within  the  three  chapters  which  Matthew 
gives  us — Jesus  applies  this  title  to  God.  Con¬ 
sistently  with  this  characteristic  use  of  the  title, 
in  his  own  teaching,  when  the  Master  seeks  to 
teach  us  how  to  pray,  he  bids  us  approach  God 
with  the  same  address:  “Our  Father,  who  art 
in  heaven.” 

This  teaching  was  given  in  the  presence  of  the 
multitudes.  It  was  no  secret,  privileged  teaching 
for  the  initiate,  the  little  band  of  intimate  dis¬ 
ciples.  The  little  group  of  intimates  had  drawn 
near  to  him,  but  all  about  him,  within  easy  hear¬ 
ing,  were  the  people  who  had  come  together 
from  all  the  countryside  of  Galilee  and  from 
regions  beyond.  Any  one,  man  or  woman,  boy 
or  girl,  of  whatever  condition  in  life,  might  hear 
that  word  and  take  it  home  and  act  upon  it. 
“After  this  manner,  pray  ye,  Our  Father,  who 
art  in  heaven/  ’  was  for  all.  There  was  no  re¬ 
striction  or  limitation  or  exclusion.  To  every 
one  Jesus  said:  Base  your  approach  to  God 
upon  this  assurance,  He  is  our  Father.  Take 
this  thought  of  God  into  your  mind  and  heart  as 
the  ruling  thought  in  your  approach  to  him. 

Moreover,  when  Jesus  puts  the  Fatherhood 


[5] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


of  God  in  the  forefront  of  his  teaching,  as  the 
ruling  principle  of  right  approach  to  God,  he 
deals  with  it  as  established  fact.  We  never  find 
him  arguing  for  it  as  one  might  argue  for  a 
proposition  that  needs  to  be  proved.  Not  even 
does  he  lay  it  down  as  a  doctrine  to  be  affirmed 
in  a  creed.  He  simply  takes  it  as  reality,  which 
is  to  govern  the  whole  religious  life.  As  God 
himself  is  to  Jesus  an  unquestioned  reality,  so  is 
the  Fatherhood  of  God.  Seeing  and  knowing  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  as  a  reality,  Jesus  seeks  to 
show  us  what  this  contains  for  the  human  spirit 
— what  it  means  for  the  religious  life  of  man¬ 
kind. 

First  of  all,  he  shows  us  what  the  divine 
Fatherhod  means  for  himself.  A  father  implies 
a  child.  The  counterpart  and  correlative  of 
fatherhood  is  sonship.  To  Jesus  Fatherhood  in 
God  means  Sonship  in  himself.  Jesus  knew  him¬ 
self  as  the  Son  of  God.  The  consciousness  of 
Sonship  was  his  abiding  possession.  It  was  the 
ruling  consciousness  of  his  life.  By  this  con¬ 
sciousness  his  whole  course  was  governed.  He 
had  it  at  his  Baptism.  He  had  it  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,  where  the  tempter  endeavored  to  becloud 


[6] 


God  Our  Father 


it  and  weaken  it  and  to  move  him  to  subject  it  to 
unworthy  tests.  He  had  it  throughout  his  days 
of  teaching  and  preaching  and  his  ministry  of 
healing.  He  had  it  in  Gethsemane,  and  in 
Pilate’s  judgment  hall,  and  on  Calvary,  and  in 
his  risen  glory.  Always,  everywhere,  this  con¬ 
sciousness  was  with  him.  I  make  no  attempt  to 
separate  his  divine  from  his  human  conscious¬ 
ness  in  this  regard.  That  may  be  possible  in 
theology,  but  not  in  experience.  It  goes  beyond 
anything  that  we  know.  Let  it  suffice  to  recog¬ 
nize  that  the  whole  attitude  of  mind  and  heart 
which  Jesus  reveals — the  whole  self  knowledge 
to  which  his  words  and  spirit  bear  witness,  is 
that  of  perfect  Sonship  toward  God.  In  per¬ 
fect  Sonship,  Jesus  knew  what  it  meant  to  call 
God,  Father.  In  that  consciousness  of  Sonship 
— in  that  knowledge  of  what  it  meant  to  call 
God,  Father,  Jesus  took  his  way  through  the 
world,  lived  and  taught  and  wrought  and  suf¬ 
fered,  and  died  and  rose  again. 

Second,  Jesus  presents  this  thought  of  God 
as  a  necessity  of  the  human  spirit.  We  too 
must  grasp  the  truth  of  the  divine  Fatherhood. 
We  too  must  come  into  the  consciousness  of 


[7] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


sonship.  We  too  must  know  ourselves  as 
children  of  God. 

This  is  a  necessity  of  personal  religion.  To 
each  one  of  us  there  falls  the  work  of  cultivating 
the  spiritual  life  within  himself.  Nothing  can 
take  the  place  of  this  personal  spiritual  cultiva¬ 
tion.  And  in  order  that  we  may  make  the  spirit¬ 
ual  life  what  it  should  be,  we  need  to  lay  firm 
hold  upon  this  truth  of  the  divine  Fatherhood 
and  work  it  into  our  inmost  consciousness.  For 
the  life  in  us  needs  to  be  in  harmony  with  the 
life  in  Christ.  And  if  we  really  follow  Christ  in 
the  realm  of  the  spirit,  we  shall  follow  him  in 
his  attitude  towards  God,  in  his  thought  of  God, 
in  his  consciousness  of  himself  in  relation  to 
God.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  say;  it  may  seem  too 
great  for  people  such  as  we  know  ourselves  to 
be;  but  it  is  true,  graciously  true;  Jesus  wishes 
to  give  us  a  share  in  his  own  consciousness.  He 
wants  us  to  feel  towards  God  as  he  feels.  He 
wants  us  to  have  the  same  assurance  of  the 
Father’s  love  and  care  and  abiding  presence. 
He  wants  us  to  know  the  same  heavenly  rela¬ 
tionship. 

It  is  just  this  sense  of  heavenly  relationship 

[8] 


God  Our  Father 


that  will  lift  us  out  of  the  toils  and  the  common¬ 
places  and  the  monotonies  of  life  and  gild  every 
common  day  with  a  glory  from  on  high.  To  know 
God  for  our  Father  and  to  know  ourselves  as  his 
children  makes  each  of  us  of  priceless  worth. 
This  is  the  glory  of  the  Christian  message.  It 
lifts  us  up  as  no  other  teaching  does.  According 
to  the  Bible,  our  origin  is  lowly.  We  are  made 
from  the  dust  of  the  earth.  A  clod  of  earth  is 
the  starting  point  of  our  race.  No  lowlier  origin 
than  this  is  assigned  us  by  evolutionary  theory. 
Evolution  starts  us  higher  than  the  clod.  The 
Bible  begins  with  the  clod.  Science  goes  no 
farther  back  and  our  dignity  has  nothing  to  fear 
from  its  findings.  Out  of  the  clod  there  comes, 
by  God’s  own  processes,  one  who  can  call  God, 
Father.  Never  mind  the  intervening  steps.  Be 
they  many  or  few,  they  are  past.  Today,  we 
stand  with  Jesus  and  gain  from  him  the  right  to 
say  to  the  Eternal  Power  and  Love,  “Our 
Father,  who  art  in  heaven.  ’  ’ 

But  this  heavenly  relationship  gives  added 
sharpness  to  another  consciousness — the  con¬ 
sciousness  of  sin.  To  sin  is  to  sin  against  a 
heavenly  Father;  not  just  to  break  the  law  of 


[9] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


a  stern  ruler ;  not  just  to  break  over  the  bounds 
of  an  arbitrary  restriction;  not  just  to  assert 
our  independence  of  authority;  but  to  grieve  a 
love  that  has  never  failed ;  to  wound  a  heart  that 
has  never  had  a  feeling  but  the  warmest  and 
truest  kindness  towards  us ;  to  fall  from  a  fel¬ 
lowship  with  the  Holiest ;  to  degrade  ourselves. 
And  because  this  is  the  meaning  of  sin,  the  sense 
of  sin  must  be  all  the  sharper  as  we  realize  that 
God  is  still  our  Father,  with  a  yearning  love 
that  waits  and  longs  to  save  us  from  our  sin  and 
to  hold  us  close  to  himself  as  his  obedient  and 
loving  children.  This  is  why  the  thought  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  is  so  necessary  to  personal 
religion.  It  is  essential  to  a  right  attitude 
towards  sin  and  obedience.  Once  realized  in  its 
fulness  of  meaning,  sin  will  be  abhorrent  to  us, 
and  every  impulse  of  our  souls  will  be  towards 
obedience  to  the  Father’s  will. 

But  in  addition  to  personal  religion, — our 
personal  relation  to  God  and  the  cultivation  of 
the  inner  life — we  have  our  relations  with  our 
fellow  men.  True  religion  is  social  as  well  as 
individual.  Here  too  we  need  to  be  governed 
by  the  significance  of  the  divine  Fatherhood. 


[10] 


God  Our  Father 


Our  great  moral  problems  today  are  social.  We 
have  made  greater  progress  towards  right  per¬ 
sonal  morals  than  we  have  towards  right  social 
morals.  This  is  an  age  of  great  social  experi¬ 
ments,  great  social  struggles,  great  social  fail¬ 
ures.  Our  social  atmosphere  is  charged  with 
selfishness,  conflict,  mutual  distrust.  Our  in¬ 
ternational  relationships,  which  are  an  exten¬ 
sion  of  our  national  social  relationships  into  the 
world  field,  are  suffering  from  the  same  blight¬ 
ing  condition.  But  one  principle  needs  to  be 
applied  through  all  the  length  and  breadth  of 
these  relations.  Whether  it  be  between  one  man 
and  his  neighbor,  one  social  group  and  another 
social  group,  or  one  people  and  another  people, 
all  need  to  be  brought  under  the  sway  of  the 
Christian  message  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God. 

Applied  socially,  this  mesage  means  that  the 
world  is  one  great  family  We  all  belong  to  the 
one  Father.  We  owe  it  to  God  and  to  ourselves 
and  to  our  fellowmen  to  develop  a  family  life 
throughout  this  world  that  will  be  well  pleasing 
to  our  Father  in  heaven.  We  owe  it  to  God  and 
ourselves  and  our  fellow  men  to  develop  rela¬ 
tionships  that  will  be  in  accord  with  the  thought 


[11] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


of  a  great  human  family  under  the  divine 
Fatherhood.  Whatever  relations  between  man 
and  man,  or  group  and  group,  or  people  and 
people  is  not  in  harmony  with  this  thought,  we 
must  eliminate.  We  must  develop  the  social 
relations  that  correspond  to  the  divine  Father¬ 
hood  of  us  all.  We  must  develop  these  relations 
not  only  within  one  people,  but  between  one 
people  and  another  people,  and  among  all  the 
peoples  of  the  earth.  We  must  have  the  social 
spirit  that  corresponds  to  the  divine  Father¬ 
hood.  This  means  that  the  conflicts  and  selfish¬ 
ness  and  mutual  distrust,  which  today  blight 
the  relations  of  men  throughout  the  world,  must 
be  put  away,  and  that  a  spirit  of  kindness  and 
peace  and  mutual  confidence  shall  pervade  and 
control  our  race.  Our  Father  in  heaven  looks 
down  and  sees  our  discords,  our  social  wrongs 
and  all  the  suffering  and  pain  they  cause.  He 
can  not  be  well  pleased.  He  would  see  love 
where  now  he  sees  hatred.  He  would  see  for¬ 
giveness  where  now  he  sees  the  spirit  of  re¬ 
venge.  He  would  see  reconciliation  where  now 
he  sees  enmity.  He  would  see  healing  where 
now  he  sees  rankling  wounds.  He  would  see 


[12] 


God  Our  Father 


hands  clasped  in  friendship  which  now  are 
clenched  to  strike. 

True  Christianity  —  the  message  of  Jesus 
Christ  —  has  this  to  contribute  to  the  world 
thought  today.  It  is  no  new  message.  It  has 
been  in  the  world  for  nineteen  centuries.  But  it 
needs  a  new  application — a  larger,  world  wide 
application.  Only  this  can  save  the  world.  And 
it  is  for  you  and  me  and  every  believer  in  Jesus 
to  repeat  this  message,  to  urge  it  with  all 
earnestness,  and  to  live  it  out  with  resolute  love. 


[13] 


CHAPTER  II 


The  Spirit  of  Reverence 


“Hallowed  be  tliy  Name.” 


WHOEVER  would  truly  minister  to  the 
human  soul  must  recognize  the  in¬ 
stinct  of  prayer  and  provide  for  it. 
The  instinct  of  prayer  is  innate.  It  is  as  wide 
spread  as  humanity  in  its  prevalence.  It  is  as 
varied  as  humanity  in  its  expression.  Wherever 
man  is  found,  he  prays.  Varied  as  men  are  in 
their  intelligence,  their  ways  of  thinking  and 
their  attainment  of  truth,  so  varied  are  they  in 
their  praying. 

In  past  and  present  we  find  men  praying  to 
gods  many  and  lords  many.  We  find  them  pray¬ 
ing  to  nature  powers,  to  sun,  moon,  star,  stream, 
fire  and  tree.  We  find  them  praying  to  things  of 
their  own  making,  wrought  by  art  and  man ’s  de¬ 
vice,  of  wood,  stone,  silver  and  gold.  We  find 
them  praying  to  heroes  of  myth  and  legend,  to 
ancestors,  and  to  creatures  of  their  own  fancies. 
We  find  them  praying  to  gods  fantastic,  gro- 


[14] 


The  Spirit  of  Reverence 


tesque,  repulsive,  unrighteous,  vicious,  cruel. 
Through  all  the  varied  movement  of  human 
thought  and  life,  this  instinct  of  prayer  has  per¬ 
sisted.  It  is  in  our  humanity,  and  it  must  be 
reckoned  with  by  any  one  who  would  meet  the 
felt  wants  of  the  human  soul. 

With  this  instinct  everywhere  witnessed 
among  men,  it  was  of  necessity  a  part  of  the 
work  of  Jesus  to  recognize  it  and  provide  for 
it.  Jesus  came  to  lead  us  out  of  error  into  truth, 
out  of  sin  into  holiness.  He  came  to  give  light 
for  darkness,  freedom  for  bondage,  purity  for 
uncleanness.  In  the  fulfillment  of  this  mission, 
he  must  lead  away  from  superstition  and  de¬ 
grading  belief  to  healthy  mindedness  and  en¬ 
nobling  faith.  He  must  give  reality  for  fancies, 
assurance  for  doubt,  peace  with  God  for  guilty 
terror. 

In  dealing  with  the  instinct  of  prayer,  there¬ 
fore,  Jesus  must  guide  and  satisfy  it.  He  must 
bring  it  to  right  expression  and  make  it  a  power 
for  holiness  in  the  life  of  man.  He  must  bring 
his  light  to  bear  upon  this  instinct  of  the  soul 
as  upon  all  else  that  dwells  in  our  humanity.  He 
must  so  teach  and  lead  as  to  rid  us  of  all  that 


[15] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


is  unworthy  and  false  or  useless  and  to  develop 
in  us  all  that  is  valuable  and  genuine  and  effi¬ 
cient.  Nothing  that  fails  to  contribute  to  the 
power  and  significance  and  worth  of  life  is  to  be 
kept.  Everything  that  makes  for  spiritual  en¬ 
richment  and  effectiveness  is  to  be  encouraged 
and  employed.  Jesus  therefore  must  purify 
and  invigorate  the  prayer  life  as  he  purifies  and 
invigorates  life  in  all  other  phases. 

Herein  lies  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  he 
taught  his  disciples  how  to  pray.  Luke  says 
that  they  asked  him  to  do  this,  and  it  was  natu¬ 
ral  that  they  should  do  so.  But  he  must  have 
taught  them,  even  if  they  had  not  asked.  He 
must  have  shown  those  men  and  all  to  whom  his 
word  should  come,  what  prayer  is  in  the  light 
of  the  truth  which  he  reveals.  He  must  bring 
prayer  into  relation  with  the  rest  of  his  message 
— the  message  of  his  life  and  works  as  well  as 
the  message  uttered  in  his  words. 

As  we  saw  in  the  previous  chapter,  Jesus  be¬ 
gins  this  teaching  by  putting  at  the  forefront 
his  characteristic  title  for  God.  God  is  our 
Father.  This  title  gives  the  ruling  thought  for 
the  whole  prayer  which  Jesus  taught.  The  con- 


116] 


The  Spirit  of  Reverence 


ception  of  the  divine  Fatherhood  dominates 
throughout.  Whatever  is  said  is  said  to  the 
Father.  Whatever  is  asked  is  asked  of  the 
Father.  Whatever  is  expected  is  expected  of 
the  Father.  Every  petition  or  aspiration  or 
ascription  is  to  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  the 
divine  Fatherhood. 

And  now,  with  this  title  for  God  and  the  con¬ 
ception  of  God  which  it  carries,  with  the  Name, 
Father,  for  God,  Jesus  gives  us  this  sentiment: 
“Hallowed  Be  Thy  Name.” 

I  call  this  a  sentiment,  rather  than  a  petition, 
because,  while  it  is  indeed  a  petition,  in  which  a 
real  desire  of  the  heart  comes  to  utterance,  there 
is  in  it  more  than  a  petition.  I  call  it  a  sentiment 
because  it  expresses  that  fineness  of  feeling  out 
of  which  the  best  in  human  action  springs.  For 
just  this  is  what  sentiment  is,  when  rightly  un¬ 
derstood.  Sentiment  is  to  be  distinguished  from 
sentimentality  or  sentimentalism.  Sentimental¬ 
ity  and  sentimentalism  are  frayed  out  senti¬ 
ment — the  heart  worn  upon  the  sleeve — the  ex¬ 
ploiting  of  a  shallow  feeling  which  is  impotent 
for  good.  But  sentiment  is  a  real  heart  pos¬ 
session.  In  every  crisis  of  life  it  can  be  relied 


[17] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


upon  to  align  us  upon  the  side  of  the  best  we 
know.  It  is  direct  in  its  vision  and  strong  in  its 
motive  power.  It  is  the  feeling  which  gives  im¬ 
petus  to  action.  Without  sentiment  life  would 
be  shorn  of  its  beauty  and  sweetness.  No  doubt, 
there  may  be  wrong  sentiment,  unenlightened 
sentiment,  misguided  sentiment.  These  have 
power  for  evil.  But  right  sentiment,  enlight¬ 
ened  and  wisely  guided  sentiment,  is  to  be  reck¬ 
oned  among  the  most  potent  of  our  moral  re¬ 
sources. 

It  is  sentiment  of  this  high,  pure  and  effective 
character  that  is  expressed  in  these  words 
which  our  Lord  has  taught  us:  1  6 Hallowed  be 
Thy  Name.”  Hallowed  be  the  Name  of  Our 
Father  when  we  use  it  of  God.  Hallowed  be  the 
Name  of  God,  who  is  Our  Father.  And  here, 
remembering  that  Jesus  is  always  seeking 
reality  and  bringing  reality  to  us,  we  need  to 
note  that  it  is  the  reality  of  the  sentiment, 
rather  than  the  form  of  words,  that  Jesus  would 
inculcate  and  emphasize.  He  is  teaching  us  not 
merely  to  say  the  words,  but  to  feel  what  they 
import.  Words  are  easily  said,  lightly  said, 
and  even  the  words  of  Jesus,  expressly  given  to 


[18] 


The  Spirit  of  Reverence 


ns  to  say,  if  said  lightly  and  without  inner  sym¬ 
pathy  and  meaning,  have  no  more  spiritual 
value  than  the  vain  repetitions  of  the  heathen, 
against  which  the  Master  warns  us.  But  to 
have  in  our  hearts  the  sentiment  which  the 
words  express  is  to  make  this  teaching  a  part 
of  ourselves,  so  that  it  shall  be  a  potent  factor 
in  our  religious  life. 

This  sentiment  of  reverence  for  God  Our 
Father,  which  Jesus  inculcates,  belongs  to  the 
recognition  of  God’s  Fatherhood.  The  thought 
of  God’s  Fatherhood  is  calculated  to  correct  all 
harsher  or  sterner  conceptions  of  God.  As  the 
ruling  thought  of  God  in  Christian  belief,  it 
must  control  and  color  our  thinking  about  God 
in  the  other  relations  and  characters  in  which 
the  Bible  represents  him — in  the  relations  and 
characters  of  Lawgiver  and  Moral  Governor 
and  Judge  of  all  the  earth.  He  is  all  these,  and 
Jesus  so  represents  him,  but  in  all  these  rela¬ 
tions,  he  is  still  Father.  It  is  as  Father  that  he 
gives  us  laws  and  governs  and  judges.  He  who 
says“Thou  shalt”  and  “Thou  shalt  not”;  He 
who  holds  the  reins  of  power  and  authority  over 
this  world  of  mankind ;  He  who  will  judge  each 


[19] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


of  ns  according  to  his  life,  is  Our  Father.  We 
are  subject  to  a  Father’s  laws,  a  Father’s  rule, 
a  Father’s  judgment.  Fatherhood  is  a  closer, 
dearer,  tenderer  relation  than  that  of  lawgiver 
or  governor  or  judge.  It  admits  us  to  greater 
intimacy  of  approach.  It  assures  us  of  love  and 
sympathy  and  kindness  and  care  and  provision. 
It  assures  us  that  behind  all  authority  and  com¬ 
mand  there  is  the  heart  of  the  Eternal,  which  is 
most  wonderfully  kind. 

As  Jesus  would  have  us  bring  these  true  con¬ 
ceptions  of  God  into  relation  with  the  ruling 
conception  of  Fatherhood ;  as  he  would  have  us 
see  the  Father  behind  all  divine  law,  govern¬ 
ment  and  judgment ;  assuredly  he  would  have  us 
banish  from  our  thought  all  crude  and  harsh 
conceptions  of  God,  which  come  from  the  days 
of  men’s  ignorance  and  blindness,  and  are  un¬ 
worthy  to  be  associated  with  the  Name  of  Our 
Father. 

Such  crude  conceptions  survive  in  the  Old 
Testament.  People  thought  that  a  divine  mes¬ 
senger  must  bring  tidings  or  presage  of  dis¬ 
aster.  Israel  marvelled  that  Moses  could  speak 
face  to  face  with  Jehovah  and  live.  The  glow 


[20] 


The  Spirit  of  Reverence 


that  lingered  upon  his  countenance,  when  he 
came  down  from  the  mount  of  communion  with 
the  Lord,  was  more  than  they  could  endure. 
Aye,  even  when  the  heavenly  messenger  came  to 
the  shepherds  of  Judea  to  tell  of  the  birth  of  the 
Saviour,  they  were  sore  afraid  and  needed  to 
he  calmed  by  the  reassuring  words:  “Fear 
not,  for  behold  I  bring  you  glad  tidings  of 
great  joy,  which  shall  be  to  all  people.’ ’  Why 
was  this!  Uneasy  consciences,  you  say.  Yes, 
doubtless  conscience  doth  make  cowards  of  us 
all.  But  more  than  that.  There  was  still  the 
crude  conception  of  God  as  a  Being  to  inspire 
terror  by  his  very  presence — not  alone  by  his 
judgments,  which  indeed  are  terrible  to  the  evil 
doer  who  persists  in  his  sin — but  by  his  very 
presence.  The  simple  thought  of  the  nearness 
of  God  made  men  afraid. 

Jesus  would  banish  all  such  thought  from  our 
minds.  He  would  have  the  thought  of  God 
bring  sweetness  and  gladness  and  peace  to  our 
hearts.  He  would  have  the  thought  of  God  the 
most  soothing  and  joy  inspiring  and  strength 
giving  of  all  thoughts  that  can  come  to  us.  Just 
the  thought  of  God  himself,  without  definition 


[21] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


or  affirmation,  lie  would  have  us  hold  as  a  source 
of  joy  and  peace.  So  he  would  have  us  enshrine 
within  us  the  thought  of  the  divine  Fatherhood. 
He  would  have  each  of  us  make  of  his  own  soul 
a  holy  place  in  which  the  divine  Fatherhood  is 
cherished  and  held  sacred. 

If  we  do  this,  there  will  be  no  place  in  us  for 
thoughts  of  God  which  are  not  in  harmony  with 
his  Fatherhood.  All  discordant  sentiments  and 
conceptions  must  flee  before  this  one  ruling 
truth.  Only  the  thoughts  and  sentiments  which 
are  in  accord  with  God  as  Christ  reveals  him 
will  have  a  home  in  us.  This  is  the  real  hallow¬ 
ing  of  Our  Father’s  Name.  You  see,  it  is  essen¬ 
tially  a  matter  of  the  inner  life.  It  is  more  than 
outward  reverence.  Outward  reverence  will 
certainly  be  born  of  it.  It  will  make  us  reverent 
in  speech  and  demeanor.  But  it  will  be  deeper 
than  these. 

If  we  have  this  sentiment  of  reverence  for 
the  Heavenly  Father,  we  shall  have  reverence 
for  all  that  is  akin  to  him.  We  shall  have  rever¬ 
ence  for  our  own  relation  of  sonship  towards 
him.  We  shall  have  reverence  for  humanity, 
made  in  the  image  of  God.  And  we  shall  rever- 


[22] 


The  Spirit  of  Reverence 


ence  truth.  We  shall  put  truth  before  tradi¬ 
tion.  We  shall  feel  that  we  are  always  free  to 
find  and  believe  and  affirm  truth,  whatever  the 
result  may  be.  We  shall  feel  that  our  minds 
must  ever  be  open  to  the  truth,  that  to  close 
our  minds  against  truth  is  to  dishonor  the 
Father,  and  we  will  not  dishonor  him.  Jesus 
honored  his  Father  and  bore  witness  to  the 
truth.  The  children  of  God  are  entitled  to  the 
truth.  If  we  really  have  the  reverence  for  God 
that  begets  reverence  for  the  truth,  we  shall 
never  be  willing  to  compromise  the  truth.  We 
shall  ever  be  seeking  the  truth,  and  as  we  find 
we  shall  follow. 

This  sentiment  of  reverence  for  God  and 
truth  and  all  good,  which  is  akin  to  God,  is  an 
essential  quality  of  character.  Whoever  is  with¬ 
out  it  has  a  fatal  lack.  Pitiful  indeed  is  the 
plight  of  the  man  or  woman  is  whose  heart  there 
is  no  holy  place  where  some  one  or  some  thing  is 
revered.  Truth,  goodness,  God, — if  none  of 
these  is  enshrined  within  the  soul,  that  soul  is 
miserably  poor,  however  large  its  other  posses¬ 
sions  may  be.  Edward  Gibbon,  the  historian, 
holds  a  secure  place  among  men  of  letters.  He 


[23] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


was  a  man  of  large  mental  gifts  and  much  learn¬ 
ing,  as  learning  was  in  his  day.  •  But  Thomas 
Carlyle  could  say  of  Gibbon:  “The  man  has 
no  shrine.”  There  are  writers  today  of  whom 
the  same  seems  true.  Gifted  as  they  are  in 
literary  art,  there  is  nothing  that  they  deem 
holy.  There  are  others,  too,  who  are  not  writers, 
who  seem  the  same.  To  them  nothing  is  sacred, 
nothing  is  worthy  of  reverence.  All  spiritual 
values  are  in  the  melting  pot.  Duty,  obligation, 
responsibility,  truth,  honor,  loyalty,  principle, 
conviction,  faith — these  are  obsolete — words 
without  meaning.  In  their  place  come  impulse, 
fancy,  mood,  the  chatter  of  the  hour,  or  at  best, 
self  expression,  or  self  realization. 

Something  is  indeed  to  be  said  for  self  reali¬ 
zation  and  self  expression,  if  these  are  taken  in 
their  deeper  sense,  but  as  men  and  women  are 
using  them  today  and  conjuring  with  them,  they 
mean  little  more  than  self  indulgence.  Under 
the  flippancy  which  dismisses  all  the  finer  things 
of  the  soul  as  outgrown  vagaries  no  longer 
wanted  in  the  objective  life  of  the  day,  the  soul 
itself  is  well  nigh  extinguished.  If  it  could  be, 
it  would  be.  And  character  loses  all  sturdiness, 


[24] 


The  Spirit  of  Reverence 


all  fineness,  all  nobility.  Banish  reverence,  dis¬ 
mantle  the  inner  temple,  and  yon  undermine 
character. 

Let  ns  come  back  to  the  Master  of  Life.  Let 
us  learn  anew  of  Him  who  spoke  from  the 
depths  of  communion  with  the  Highest.  Who¬ 
ever  will  sit  at  his  feet  and  learn  of  him  will 
gain  what  men  are  so  much  needing  today,  a 
deeper  sense  of  the  reality  of  divine  things  and 
an  inner  hallowing  of  the  divine  that  will  bring 
peace  and  strength  to  the  soul. 


[25] 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Coming  of  the  Father's  Kingdom 
“Tky  Kingdom  Come.  " 

IN  THE  teaching  of  Jesus,  prayer  has  two 
characteristics  which  are  directly  opposite. 
It  is  at  once  strictly  individual  and  broadly 
social. 

The  individuality  of  prayer  is  distinctly 
brought  out  in  such  teaching  as  this:  ‘ 4 Thou, 
when  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet,  and 
when  thou  hast  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy 
Father  who  is  in  secret,  and  thy  Father,  who 
seeth  in  secret,  shall  reward  thee  openly.''  This 
makes  prayer  a  secret  exercise  of  the  soul,  alone 
with  God.  Isolation  from  the  rest  of  mankind ; 
exclusion  of  the  world;  this  is  Christ's  explicit 
condition  of  true  prayer.  This  is  positive  teach¬ 
ing,  and  its  principle  must  stand  as  clearly  the 
principle  of  Jesus.  In  the  secret  place,  pray  to 
thy  Father,  who  is  in  secret.  Primarily  and 
vitally,  then,  prayer  must  be  the  individual  en¬ 
terprise  of  the  individual  soul.  It  will  gain 


[26] 


The  Coming  of  the  Father's  Kingdom 


its  character  from  the  direct  approach  of  each 
soul  to  God.  Under  this  conception,  every  one 
who  would  pray  aright  needs  to  cultivate  the 
power  of  direct  approach  to  the  Most  High ;  to 
realize  that  the  Father  is  in  secret  and  seeth  in 
secret ;  to  come  into  actual,  personal  touch  with 
God. 

On  the  other  hand,  Jesus  makes  prayer  to  be 
distinctly  social.  In  the  aloneness  with  God, 
where  all  is  in  the  Father’s  sight,  where  all  is 
said  to  the  Father,  where  all  is  asked  of  the 
Father,  where  all  is  expected  of  the  Father, 
prayer  is  to  be  as  widely  social  as  it  is  rigidly 
individual.  There,  in  the  secret  presence  of  the 
Father,  is  the  place  for  the  broadest  human 
sympathy,  for  the  keenest  realization  of  the 
needs  of  our  fellow  men,  for  the  strongest  sense 
of  kinship  with  the  whole  of  humanity.  Pray  to 
thy  Father,  but  call  him  Our  Father.  And  in 
that  title  realize  the  share  which  every  one  of 
our  mankind  possesses  in  the  divine  Father¬ 
hood.  Carry  with  you  every  human  relation¬ 
ship.  Eealize  yourself  as  one  of  the  great 
family  of  God.  Shut  out  nothing  that  belongs 
to  human  life.  Make  your  prayer  inclusive.  In 


[27] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


the  presence  of  God,  gain  a  quickened  sense  of 
the  wants  of  man.  Largeness  of  heart,  breadth 
of  sympathy,  a  sense  of  others,  are  a  necessity 
of  Christian  prayer. 

“He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 
All  things  both  great  and  small ; 

For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 

He  made  and  loveth  all. ’  7 

Distinctly  this  social  quality  in  prayer  is  in¬ 
tended  in  the  familiar  petition,  so  often  used 
and  so  often  spoken  upon:  “Thy  kingdom 
come.” 

Just  what  people  ask  for  when  they  offer  this 
petition  sincerely  and  thoughtfully  will  depend 
upon  the  conception  each  has  of  the  meaning  of 
the  kingdom  of  God.  For  people  have  held  vari¬ 
ant  views  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  familiar 
phrase.  Some  have  identified  the  kingdom  of 
God  with  the  Christian  Church,  as  a  visible,  or¬ 
ganic  body.  Some  have  thought  of  the  kingdom 
chiefly  as  the  glorified  life  of  the  world  to  come. 
Some  have  pictured  it  as  a  Christian  State  on 
the  earth.  The  Jews  of  Christ’s  time  and  ear¬ 
lier,  thought  of  it  as  the  restored  Jewish  mon- 

[28] 


The  Coming  op  the  Father's  Kingdom 


archy  under  the  government  of  the  Messiah. 
Today  many  Christian  thinkers  conceive  of  it  as 
human  society  thoroughly  Christianized,  that  is, 
the  ideal  society  from  a  Christian  standpoint. 
And  with  the  general  thought  of  the  ideal 
society,  people  differ  widely  as  to  the  form  it 
will  take. 

Yet,  amidst  all  this  diversity  of  view  as  to 
the  fashion  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  there  is  one 
dominant,  creative  idea.  It  is  this :  The  fulfill¬ 
ment  of  the  divine  ideal  for  man.  When  God 
works  out  his  purpose ;  when  he  has  his  way  with 
the  world ;  when  humanity  becomes  what  God  in¬ 
tends,  then  the  kingdom  of  God  appears.  Essen¬ 
tially  then,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  God’s  ideal 
for  us,  rather  than  our  ideal  for  ourselves.  Our 
ideals  differ ;  our  conceptions  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  differ,  therefore,  because  we  differ  in  our 
insight  into  the  divine  meanings.  We  strive  to 
fashion  our  ideals  after  the  divine  ideal,  and  all 
our  ideals  are  imperfectly  fashioned,  because 
we  see  only  in  part.  The  Jew  conceived  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  as  the  restored  Jewish  mon¬ 
archy,  because  he  felt  so  keenly  the  loss  of  inde¬ 
pendence,  and  was  so  wrapped  up  in  the  fortunes 


[29] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


of  his  own  people  throughout  their  tragic 
history  that  he  seldom  saw  beyond.  Enthusias¬ 
tic  churchmen  have  identified  the  kingdom  of 
God  with  the  visible  church,  because  to  them, 
the  grace  and  power  of  God  have  been  exerted 
on  behalf  of  man  solely  through  the  organic 
body.  Other  men,  noting  the  power  and  pos¬ 
sibility  that  reside  in  human  governments,  have 
thought  that  these,  if  once  linked  with  Christi¬ 
anity  and  made  to  serve  its  ends,  would  consti¬ 
tute  the  kingdom  of  God.  Still  others,  seeing 
that  governments  represent  only  a  fraction  of 
social  power  and  possibility,  have  conceived  of 
society  in  a  more  comprehensive  way  and  have 
built  up  ideals  of  social  organization  on  Chris¬ 
tian  lines.  Thus  the  conception  has  grown  and 
broadened,  and  men  have  sought  earnestly  to 
discern  and  portray  the  divine  ideal  of  life  on 
earth,  while  other  minds,  despairing  of  this 
present  world,  have  seen  hope  only  in  the  rap¬ 
ture  of  heaven. 

But  always,  and  in  all  the  variously  fashioned 
conceptions,  the  thought  has  been  present,  that 
the  kingdom  of  God  is  good  for  man.  The  king¬ 
dom  always  embodies  the  greatest  human 


[30] 


The  Coming  of  the  Father’s  Kingdom 


benefit.  It  always  secures  human  happiness. 
And  so  men  have  ever  longed  for  it.  God’s 
kingdom  should  right  the  wrongs  under  which 
men  have  groaned.  It  should  compensate  for 
the  sufferings  men  have  borne.  It  should  rid 
life  of  its  evils.  It  is  God  coming  to  the  relief 
of  men.  It  is  God  intervening  with  his  power 
and  authority  to  put  away  the  things  that  hurt, 
and  to  bring  in  the  things  that  bless.  There  is 
great  pathos  in  this  persistent  human  longing 
for  the  kingdom  of  God.  In  this  longing  are 
brought  to  expression  all  the  aspirations  and 
soul  strivings  of  men  after  better  things,  after 
fuller  and  freer  life,  after  deeper  satisfaction, 
after  the  consummation  of  their  being. 

And  now  Jesus  sanctions  this  longing  of  men 
and  bids  us  pray  for  the  coming  of  God’s  king¬ 
dom.  Consistently  with  the  dominant  thought 
of  the  prayer,  he  would  have  us  think  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  as  the  kingdom  of  Our  Father. 
And  so  the  kingdom  comes  to  mean  Our 
Father’s  ideal  for  us — for  the  world  of  man¬ 
kind — what  Our  Father  would  have  us  be — what 
mankind  would  be,  if  Our  Father  had  his  way 
with  us  unhindered — what  mankind  will  be 


[31] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


when  Our  Father’s  intent  is  fulfilled.  This  is 
the  kingdom  of  God  for  whose  coming  Jesus 
bids  us  pray. 

In  this  kingdom,  love  reigns.  So  much  we 
can  say  with  certainty,  without  undertaking  to 
fashion  the  ideal  more  precisely.  The  essential 
matter  is  always  that  the  thought  of  Our  Father 
for  us  shall  have  unhindered  sway;  that  Our 
Father’s  ideal  for  our  human  family  shall  come 
to  realization.  And  I  take  it  to  be  the  intent  of 
the  prayer  that  we  shall  not  insist  upon  the 
particular  conception  of  the  divine  ideal  which 
we  have  reached  in  our  own  thought,  but  that  we 
shall  hold  our  minds  open  to  God’s  disclosures; 
that  we  shall  have  such  implicit  trust  in  the 
wisdom  and  love  of  Our  Heavenly  Father  that 
we  shall  seek  rather  the  fulfillment  of  his  pur¬ 
pose  than  the  fulfillment  of  our  own  vision  of 
what  should  be.  And  ever  there  will  be  this  all 
pervasive  conviction  that  the  whole  hope  of  our 
world  rests  upon  the  establishment  of  the  reign 
of  God. 

It  is  clear  then,  that  when  Jesus  bids  us  pray 
for  the  coming  of  Our  Father’s  kingdom,  he 
means  to  enlist  our  broadest  sympathies  on  the 


[32] 


The  Coming  of  the  Father's  Kingdom 


side  of  the  aspirations  and  longings  of  men. 
He  wants  ns  to  feel  keenly  the  needs  of  the 
world.  He  wants  to  free  ns  from  the  bondage  to 
onr  own  immediate  desires.  He  wants  to  get  ns 
out  of  the  narrowness  of  mere  personal  wishes 
and  ambitions  and  needs  and  to  link  ns  with  the 
upward  movement  of  humanity.  Because  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  the  symbol  of  all  that  is 
deepest  and  most  persistent  in  human  longing; 
because  only  in  the  kingdom  of  God  are  men  to 
realize  the  purpose  of  their  being;  therefore 
Jesus  would  enlist  our  sympathy,  our  longing, 
our  prayer,  for  its  coming.  Prayer  for  the  com¬ 
ing  of  the  kingdom  of  Our  Father  is  prayer  in 
its  broadest  social  significance. 

Furthermore,  Jesus  desires  to  enlist  us  on 
the  side  of  his  own  work.  A  Christian  must  be 
in  sympathy  with  Jesus.  So  far  as  we  are  Chris¬ 
tian,  our  sympathies  are  with  the  Master  in  all 
that  he  is  doing.  Our  sympathies  are  with  him 
in  the  fulfillment  of  his  life  purpose  and  mis¬ 
sion.  We  want  what  he  wants.  We  aim  at  the 
object  he  aimed  to  accomplish.  We  align  our¬ 
selves  with  him  in  all  the  effort  and  undertaking 
of  his  life.  Now,  Jesus  is  definitely  committed 


[33] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


to  the  kingdom  of  God.  His  life  purpose  is  to 
promote  and  reveal  that  kingdom ;  to  reveal  the 
kingdom  in  its  principles  and  powers;  to  pro¬ 
mote  the  kingdom  by  bringing  its  principles  into 
practice  and  by  releasing  its  powers  in  action. 
The  work  of  Jesus  Christ  is  an  unfinished  work. 
It  is  still  in  process.  Only  part  of  his  work  is 
finished.  His  earthly  mission,  delivering  the 
message  received  from  the  Father  for  men;  his 
life  of  humiliation;  his  example  of  perfect 
obedience  to  God,  on  earth;  his  sacrifice  for  sin 
upon  the  Cross ;  his  victory  over  death,  in  resur¬ 
rection;  all  these  are  finished.  But  in  addition 
to  these,  or  in  co-operation  with  them,  there  is 
the  continuous  work  to  which  he  is  committed — 
the  work  of  bringing  in  the  kingdom  of  God — 
of  realizing  the  divine  ideal  for  man. 

All  that  he  has  done  for  us  bears  upon  this 
end.  All  the  truth  he  has  taught;  the  spirit  he 
has  shown;  the  powers  he  has  released;  all  are 
for  this.  And  because  this  is  the  work  that  he 
has  begun  and  is  carrying  forward,  he  would 
have  our  fellowship  in  it.  He  would  have  us  as 
clearly  and  heartily  committed  to  it  as  he  is. 
He  wants  us  with  him  in  it.  Jesus  takes  small 


[34] 


The  Coming  of  the  Father’s  Kingdom 


interest  in  our  ecclesiastical  details,  our  secta¬ 
rian  rivalries,  our  petty  schemes,  our  religious 
trivialities,  which  so  often  obscure  our  vision  of 
larger  things.  He  would  have  us  put  these 
things  in  the  small  and  subordinate  place  to 
which  they  belong.  And  then  he  would  have  us 
come  with  our  deepest  interest,  our  richest 
energies,  our  warmest  sympathies  and  our  most 
vital  enthusiasm  to  the  one  great  work  of  age¬ 
long  and  world-wide  import — the  bringing  in  of 
the  kingdom  of  God.  Whatever  makes  for  that 
work  he  would  have  us  foster  and  encourage; 
whatever  does  not  count  for  that  work  he  would 
have  us  put  aside.  And  so  he  bids  us  pray:  Thy 
Kingdom  come. 

Once  more,  Jesus  would  have  us  take  a  candid 
view  of  world  conditions.  This  prayer  implies, 
what  the  continuous  work  of  Christ  clearly  pro¬ 
ceeds  upon — that  the  Kingdom  of  Our  Father 
has  not  come.  It  is  coming,  continually  coming, 
but  it  has  not  come  in  its  fulness.  It  had  not 
come  when  Jesus  was  upon  the  earth;  it  has 
not  come  yet.  Jesus  never  permitted  his  fol¬ 
lowers  to  be  blind  to  the  facts  of  human  life.  In 
Ms  devotion  to  truth,  he  taught  them  to  see 

[35] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


things  as  they  are.  Everywhere  his  light  shows 
things  in  their  actual  character.  He  teaches  us 
to  call  good,  good,  and  to  call  evil,  evil;  to  call 
right,  right,  and  to  call  wrong,  wrong.  He 
teaches  us  to  see  the  kingdom  of  God  wherever 
God  is  honored  and  obeyed  and  to  see  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  has  not  yet  come  wherever  God 
is  dishonored  and  disobeyed. 

Jesus  would  not  be  content  to  have  us  sing 
with  Browning’s  Pippa  on  her  holiday:  “ God’s 
in  his  heaven ;  All ’s  well  with  the  world.  ’  ’  That 
is  the  mood  of  the  Spring  and  the  care  free 
gayety  of  youth,  which  none  of  us  would  check 
or  reprove.  Let  us  be  thankful  for  all  innocent 
gayety  and  blitheness  in  a  world  of  so  much  sad¬ 
ness.  But  as  a  clear  eyed  and  thoughtful  view 
of  the  world,  we  can  not  make  Pippa ’s  song  our 
philosophy.  Jesus  did  not.  We  have  to  see 
that  all  is  not  well  with  the  world.  We  have  to 
see  that  much  is  wrong,  and  that  it  is  the  sin 
and  bitter  selfishness  of  men  that  make  this  so. 
In  Browning’s  poem,  you  remember,  Pippa ’s 
song  fell  upon  the  ears  of  two  people  whose 
hands  and  souls  were  stained  with  deadly  sin. 

[36] 


The  Coming  of  the  Father ’s  Kingdom 


And  ever  when  we  look  frankly  upon  the  world 
as  it  is,  we  must  see  that  with  all  that  is  good — 
and  there  is  much — men  are  still  far  from  realiz¬ 
ing  the  Father’s  kingdom.  So  Jesus  would  have 
us  pray,  with  intelligent  grasp  of  the  facts,  with 
warmest  sympathy  with  human  need,  with  con¬ 
fession  of  our  own  shortcoming,  and  with  pas¬ 
sionate  longing  for  the  day:  “Thy  Kingdom 
Come.” 

One  more  thought.  When  Jesus  bids  us  pray 
for  the  coming  of  the  Father’s  kingdom,  he  con¬ 
veys  an  assurance.  The  Kingdom  of  the  Father 
will  come.  It  is  coming.  It  has  been  coming 
throughout  the  ages.  We  follow  no  forlorn 
hope  when  we  pray  and  look  and  labor  for  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom.  We  align  ourselves  with 
the  divine  movement  which  sweeps  on  to  vic¬ 
tory.  World  conditions  look  dark  at  times. 
Perhaps  if  we  knew  more  facts,  they  would  look 
still  darker.  Reactionary  forces,  whose  strength 
we  have  not  calculated,  may  triumph  for  a  time. 
But  the  mightiest  powers,  the  powers  of  truth, 
righteousness,  love  and  peace,  will  come  to  their 
own. 


[37] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


Not  however  by  our  sitting  still  and  waiting. 
Rather  by  our  entire  consecration,  our  steadfast 
faith,  our  unwearying  labors,  and  our  most 
earnest  prayer. 


[38] 


CHAPTER  IV 

How  the  Father's  Will  is  To  Be  Done 

“Thy  will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven.” 

IN  CONSIDERING  the  teachings  of  Jesus, 
we  are  always  to  remember  that  they  are 
for  all  mankind.  Jesus  gives  them  and  says : 
4  4  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear. 9 1  He 
shuts  out  fro  one  who  is  willing  to  enter  the 
circle  of  his  disciples.  He  says:  4 ‘Him  that 
cometh  unto  me,  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out. 9  7  He 
makes  no  distinction  of  class  or  caste  or  meas¬ 
ure  of  attainment.  He  has  no  secret  teaching  for 
a  favored,  select  few.  His  message  is  for  the 
public.  If  he  gives  it  to  chosen  men  whom  he  has 
trained  and  trusted,  it  is  that  these  may  give  it 
to  the  world.  All  he  asks  is  that  the  message 
be  believed  and  obeyed.  Any  one  who  will  may 
believe  and  obey  it. 

People  felt  this  in  Jesus  from  the  first.  They 
were  drawn  to  him  by  it.  His  ignoring  of  all 
distinctions  and  his  meeting  people  upon  the 
common  human  plane  drew  about  him  people 


[39] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


who  were  outside  the  influence  of  official  teach¬ 
ers  of  religion.  They  felt  that  they  could  come 
to  him  freely,  as  they  could  not  come  to  the  offi¬ 
cial  teachers.  They  felt  that  he  spoke  to  them 
simply  as  men  and  women,  with  common  human 
needs,  frailties,  sins,  struggles  and  capacities. 

This  all  inclusive  breadth  of  intent  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  is  significant  in  connection 
with  the  prayer  that  he  taught.  The  prayer  is 
for  everybody.  It  is  not  meant  to  he  the  prayer 
of  a  sect  or  a  party  or  a  class,  or  a  people.  It  is 
the  prayer  of  humanity.  Wherever  men  are 
found,  there  Jesus  would  have  them  pray  after 
this  manner  to  the  Father  of  all. 

Now  observe  the  significance  of  this  fact  for 
this  one  petition,  which  is  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  prayer :  “  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth,  as  it  is 
in  heaven.’ ’  As  in  heaven,  so  in  earth,  is  the 
Father’s  will  to  be  done.  Thus  are  we  to  pray. 
Jesus  would  make  this  the  prayer  of  the  world. 
It  must  be  so,  sooner  or  later,  if  it  is  to  become 
a  reality.  For  it  is  world  wide  in  its  scope.  If 
the  Father’s  will  is  to  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is 
done  in  heaven,  it  must  be  done  in  all  the  earth 
and  not  only  in  a  limited  portion.  And  every¬ 


th] 


How  the  Father's  Will  is  To  Be  Done 


where  on  earth  people  must  be  praying  that 
this  may  be. 

Whoever  will  ponder  this  petition  so  as  to 
realize  its  meaning  will  see  that  it  pictures  the 
possibilities  of  human  life  in  the  most  glowing 
colors.  We  have  been  taught  to  regard  our 
humanity  as  sinful,  as  fallen.  All  along  the 
pathway  of  history,  there  is  sin.  The  men  of  the 
Bible  are  sinners.  We  know  ourselves  as  sin¬ 
ners.  And  Jesus  came  to  call  sinners.  Sin  is  a 
fact. 

But  sin  is  not  the  final  fact.  Within  this  hu¬ 
manity  of  ours,  with  its  taint  and  stain  of  sin, 
there  is  something  deeper  than  sin.  There  is 
the  potency,  the  latent  possibility,  of  the  man¬ 
hood  that  was  in  God's  intent.  There  is  the 
potency  of  the  humanity  which  God  saw  when 
he  made  us  after  his  own  image  and  likeness; 
when  he  looked  upon  his  creation  and  saw  that 
it  was  all  very  good.  Within  every  one  of  us 
there  is  latent  a  better  self  than  has  ever  come 
to  light.  Within  this  humanity  of  ours  there  is 
a  better  humanity  than  has  ever  written  its 
deeds  upon  the  pages  of  the  world's  record.  In 
the  course  of  human  life  through  the  years  and 


[41] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


centuries,  the  baser  possibilities  have  often 
come  to  fulfillment.  The  nobler  ones  have  often 
been  thrust  into  the  background  or  have 
gleamed  forth  only  occasionally,  instead  of 
shining  ever  with  strong  and  steady  ray  and 
giving  color  to  the  whole  of  life. 

It  is  the  aim  and  the  work  of  Jesus  to  release 
the  nobler  powers,  to  bring  to  realization  the 
nobler  possibilities,  to  fulfill  in  us  the  divine 
intent.  And  so  while  he  never  belittles  or  denies 
the  facts  of  sin,  while  he  frankly  comes  to  call 
sinners  to  himself,  he  ever  seeks  to  turn  our 
thought  away  from  sin  to  the  higher  possibil¬ 
ities.  It  is  as  though  he  said  to  every  one  of 
us:  “Forget  the  sinner  you  are  and  contem¬ 
plate  the  saint  you  may  be.  I  am  here  to  re¬ 
lease  the  child  of  God  that  is  captive  within  you 
and  to  bring  him  out  to  his  divine  inheritance.  ’ ’ 

Jesus  would  have  us  emphasize  the  good  that 
awaits  development  within  us.  He  would  have 
us  bring  to  the  fore  the  better  self  that  is  truly 
in  each  of  us — the  self  that  God  made.  And  be¬ 
cause  of  the  latent  humanity  that  is  after  the 
image  and  likeness  of  God — the  nobler  self  that 
longs  for  freedom — the  self  that  is  God’s  true 


[42] 


How  the  Father’s  Will  is  To  Be  Dohe 


child — Jesus  puts  before  us  in  the  prayer  he 
bids  us  off er  the  life  in  which  that  latent  human¬ 
ity  shall  come  to  expression.  This  is  the  life 
in  which  the  will  of  Our  Father  is  done  in  earth 
as  it  is  done  in  heaven.  In  that  life  the  child  of 
God  in  us  comes  to  his  own. 

Now,  let  me  say,  you  and  I  ought  to  become 
better  acquainted  with  that  better  self,  the  child 
of  God  in  us.  We  are  well  acquainted  with  the 
frail,  faulty,  fitful,  failing,  fearful  self.  We  are 
so  wTell  acquainted  with  this  self  that  we  are 
often  well  nigh  strangers  to  the  other,  nobler 
self.  But  it  is  the  other,  nobler  self  that  we  need 
to  know  best.  And  the  more  we  know  this  nobler 
self,  the  less  will  the  baser  self  thrust  its  pres¬ 
ence  upon  us.  The  strong,  pure,  courageous 
self,  which  mirrors  forth  the  will  of  God,  will 
come  into  conscious  control  and  the  baser  self 
will  become  powerless  and  shrink  back.  This  is 
what  Jesus  is  aiming  to  bring  to  pass  when  he 
sets  before  us  this  picture  of  life  on  earth  in 
which  God’s  will  is  done  as  it  is  done  in  heaven. 

It  will  perhaps  be  said  that  this  is  an  ideal 
picture  and  shows  not  a  real  humanity,  but  an 
ideal  humanity.  Granted  that,  compared  with 


[43] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


human  life  as  we  know  it,  the  picture  is  ideal. 
But  the  ideal  is  creative,  as  are  all  the  ideals  of 
Jesus.  This  ideal  is  not  only  to  he  seen,  but  is 
to  be  made  a  part  of  ourselves  and  to  be  steadily 
realized  through  its  power  over  our  inner  life. 
I  take  it  that  the  winsome  quality  in  the  message 
of  Jesus  has  ever  been  its  ideal  quality.  He  has 
held  up  before  men  and  women  not  what  they 
are,  but  what  they  may  be. 

The  mere  realizing  of  sin  makes  no  one  bet¬ 
ter  ;  helps  no  one  to  a  new  life.  Useful  as  it  may 
be  to  awaken,  it  has  no  power  to  impel  to  holi¬ 
ness.  A  mere  sense  of  sin  will  leave  a  man  in 
his  sins.  The  prodigal  in  his  rags  and  hunger 
remains  in  his  rags  and  hunger  so  long  as  he 
sees  only  his  rags  and  feels  only  his  hunger. 
When  he  thinks  of  the  Father  and  the  Father ’s 
house  and  the  place  he  has  forfeited  in  that 
house;  when  he  thinks  of  what  he  might  have 
been  and  had ;  when  he  thinks  of  himself  as  he 
should  be,  then  he  resolves  to  return.  It  is  al¬ 
ways  the  thought  of  the  good  that  might  be  ours, 
of  the  good  that  we  might  be  and  do,  that  moves 
us  to  a  higher  life.  So  in  giving  us  this  thought 
of  doing  Our  Father’s  will  in  earth  as  it  is  done 


[44] 


Iiow  the  Father’s  Will  is  To  Be  Done 


in  heaven,  and  in  bidding  us  keep  this  thought 
before  us  in  our  prayers,  Jesus  has  given  us  an 
ideal  of  true  creative  power.  He  has  sought  to 
enlist  our  imaginations  as  active  powers  on  be¬ 
half  of  the  transformation  of  life. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  picture  more  closely, 
as  Jesus  presents  it  to  us.  Just  what  is  this 
creative  ideal  which  he  would  have  us  cherish? 
As  in  heaven,  so  in  earth.  Jesus  would  extend 
the  frontier  of  heaven  so  as  to  include  the  earth. 
He  would  expand  the  area  of  heavenly  life  so 
as  to  encompass  life  here.  He  would  have  us 
pattern  our  life  after  the  life  of  heaven.  Put  it 
in  any  of  these  ways,  the  idea  is  practically  the 
same  — that  our  human  life  here  is  to  undergo  a 
transformation  which  shall  give  it  heavenly 
character.  But  what  do  we  know  about  heaven? 
Is  it  not  outside  our  experiences  as  we  walk  the 
ways  of  earth?  These  questions  naturally  arise. 
Some  definite  replies  may  be  made. 

First,  it  may  be  said  that  Jesus  himself 
speaks  of  heaven  as  a  reality.  He  is  entirely  at 
home  in  the  thought  of  heaven.  He  tells  of  the 
angels  in  heaven  who  joy  over  the  repentance 
of  a  sinner.  He  bids  us  call  God  our  Father  in 


[45] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 

Heaven.  And  he  says  that  he  came  down  from 
heaven,  not  to  do  his  own  will,  but  the  will  of 
the  Father  who  sent  him. 

Jesns  speaks  as  one  who  knows.  He  speaks 
of  heaven  as  one  might  speak  of  his  home.  He 
does  this  without  describing  or  locating,  as 
though  description  or  location  were  unneces¬ 
sary.  Now  when  we  follow  him  so  far,  and  re¬ 
cognize  that  there  is  a  realm  of  reality  in  which 
God  dwells  and  God’s  will  is  done,  and  in  which 
Jesus  is  at  home,  we  may  picture  the  life  in  that 
realm  in  some  of  its  leading  features : 

To  begin  with,  we  may  say  that  the  heavenly 
life  is  filled  with  the  radiant  presence  of  God. 
There  God  is  clearly  manifested,  without  ques¬ 
tion  or  doubt.  All  clouds  and  darkness  are  dis¬ 
pelled.  His  presence  is  realized,  vividly,  posi¬ 
tively,  powerfully.  His  radiant  presence  is  the 
supreme  reality. 

We  may  say,  too,  that  the  life  of  heaven  is  the 
life  in  which  love  reigns.  The  whole  atmos¬ 
phere  of  the  heavenly  realm  is  the  atmosphere 
of  love.  Any  thing  that  is  unloving  is  unknown 
there.  It  has  no  place  in  the  heavenly  life.  All 
the  unloving,  and  therefore,  unlovely,  things 


[46] 


How  the  Father’s  Will  is  To  Be  Done 


that  mar  the  life  on  earth  as  we  know  it,  simply 
do  not  appear  in  the  life  of  heaven.  Love  is  so 
strong,  so  pervasive,  so  controlling,  that  the  un¬ 
lovely  things  can  not  come  to  being.  God  is  love, 
according  to  his  word  given  to  us  here,  and  we 
seek  to  grasp  the  truth  by  faith;  but  in  the  life 
in  which  God’s  radiant  presence  is  ever  felt,  this 
truth  is  known  as  a  present  reality  vividly  and 
constantly  experienced.  God’s  love  permeates 
the  atmosphere  of  heaven  as  the  June  sunshine 
permeates  our  air.  In  the  glow  of  that  radiant 
love  all  life  is  tilled  with  love. 

We  may  say,  further,  that  the  life  of  heaven 
is  tilled  with  joy.  “In  thy  presence  is  fulness  of 
joy,”  says  the  Psalmist.  Even  in  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  times,  some  minds  had  seen  this  truth. 
The  presence  of  God,  radiant  with  love,  is  a  joy 
giving  presence.  And  where  that  presence  is 
vividly  manifest,  warming  all  life  with  its  glow, 
flooding  all  life  with  its  light,  gilding  all  life 
with  its  glory,  all  life  is  made  joyous. 

If  we  thus  conceive  the  heavenly  life,  we  can 
gain  some  idea  of  the  doing  of  God’s  will  in 
heaven.  We  can  see  that  all  these  features  of  the 
heavenly  life  will  be  reflected  in  the  obedience 

[47] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


that  is  given  to  the  Heavenly  Father.  God’s 
will  will  be  done  as  in  his  very  presence.  Not 
as  the  will  of  one  who  issues  distant  commands, 
but  as  the  will  of  one  who  is  close  at  hand,  touch¬ 
ing  life  with  his  life,  radiating  power,  energy, 
vigor,  vitality,  giving  every  one  to  feel  the  in¬ 
flow  from  his  own  exhaustless  being.  Doing 
God’s  will  with  a  strength  unfailing,  with  a 
strength  constantly  renewed  from  the  very 
fountain  of  life — this  is  the  heavenly  obedience. 

Then,  also,  in  the  heavenly  life,  God’s  will  is 
done  ever  lovingly.  As  love  is  the  atmosphere 
of  heaven,  so  is  it  the  moving  power  of  all 
obedience.  God’s  will  is  never  truly  done  if  it  is 
not  done  lovingly.  For  love  is  the  inner  prin¬ 
ciple  of  the  will  of  God.  Unloving  obedience  is 
unknown  in  heaven.  Doing  things  as  hard,  un¬ 
welcome  duty  is  unknown  there.  Doing  things 
from  fear  of  the  consequences  of  not  doing  them 
is  unknown  there.  Perfect  love  casteth  out  fear. 
Love  obeys  promptly,  fully,  and  without  calcula¬ 
tion  or  stint.  Such  is  the  obedience  of  heaven. 

Once  more,  as  the  life  of  heaven  is  filled  with 
joy,  God’s  will  is  done  there  in  the  same  spirit. 
The  joyous  life  ensures  joyous  obedience. 


[48] 


How  the  Father’s  Will  is  To  Be  Done 


Somewhat  like  this  may  we  conceive  the  life 
that  Jesus  would  have  us  seek  and  gain  here  on 
earth.  The  ideal  for  the  world  of  mankind,  as 
it  is,  he  would  have  all  his  followers  seek  to 
realize  it  in  themselves,  while  they  pray  for  its 
realization  everywhere  upon  earth.  He  would 
have  us  do  the  Heavenly  Father’s  will  with  a 
vivid  sense  of  the  Father’s  presence,  as  the 
never  failing  source  of  life  and  power;  with  a 
love  that  is  born  of  God’s  own  love  and  that 
counts  nothing  too  much  to  do  for  him;  with  a 
joyousness  that  abounds  and  is  ever  renewed. 

So  Jesus  would  have  us  live  and  obey.  So  he 
did  the  will  of  God.  He  has  shown  us  the  wav. 
He  has  taught  us  in  himself  how  the  will  of  God 
is  done  in  heaven.  He  has  brought  the  heaven 
spirit  down  to  earth.  He  has  shown  us  the  con¬ 
stant  realization  of  the  Father’s  presence,  the 
love  that  refuses  nothing  the  Father  wills,  and 
the  joy  which  the  world  can  not  take  away. 

He  has  shown  us  the  way.  Shall  we  not  take 
it? 


[49] 


CHAPTER  V 


The  Daily  Bread 
“Give  us  this  clay  our  daily  bread. ” 

FROM  the  divine  to  the  human.  From  the 
heaven  high  vision  of  God  and  the  world 
wide  vision  of  the  purpose  of  God  to  the 
sense  of  the  common  man  and  his  daily  hunger. 
This  is  the  order  of  prayer  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus.  First  our  view  is  lifted  to  the  hallowing 
of  the  heavenly  Father’s  name,  the  coming  of 
the  heavenly  Father’s  kingdom,  and  the  doing 
of  the  heavenly  Father’s  will;  then  our  minds 
are  turned  to  the  commonest  of  men’s  daily 
needs.  First,  the  Heavenly  Father  in  his  holi¬ 
ness  and  sovereignty  and  righteous  love — then 
the  human  family  in  their  want  and  sin  and  ex¬ 
posure  to  evil. 

This  order  is  significant.  It  witnesses  to  the 
effect  in  experience  of  realizing  the  presence  of 
God.  Prayer  brings  us  with  conscious  purpose 
into  the  realized  presence  of  God.  I  say,  the 
realized  presence,  because  we  always  have  the 


[50] 


The  Daily  Bread 


presence  of  God  as  an  objective  fact.  We  have 
it  whether  we  think  of  God  or  not.  We  have  it 
wherever  we  are  and  whatever  we  are  doing. 

“Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit? 

Or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  ? 

If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven,  thon  are  there ; 

If  I  make  my  bed  in  Sheol,  behold,  thou 
art  there; 

If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning, 

And  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
sea; 

Even  there  shall  thy  hand  lead  me, 

And  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me.  ’  ’ 

True  as  this  is,  it  may  be  true  without  our 
realizing  it  or  wishing  to  realize  it.  But  in 
prayer  that  is  a  genuine  exercise  of  the  soul  we 
seize  upon  the  fact  of  God’s  presence.  We 
speak  to  him  and  he  hears.  There  is  close  per¬ 
sonal  contact — contact  desired  and  sought —  be¬ 
tween  the  human  spirit  and  the  Divine  Spirit. 
When  we  pray  aright  we  wish  God  to  be  near. 
We  wish  him  to  hear.  We  have  no  desire  to  flee 
from  his  presence.  Our  desire  is  to  be  in  his 
presence. 


[51] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


And  when  God’s  presence  is  realized,  and  so 
far  as  it  is  realized,  the  first  normal  effect  of  the 
realization  is  that  God’s  presence  overshadows, 
or  better,  outshines ,  every  other  presence.  God 
fills  the  horizon  of  the  sonl.  Then,  with  his 
mighty  personality  outshining  all  else,  his 
Name,  his  Kingdom,  his  Will  must  take  the  fore¬ 
most  place.  This  must  be,  not  by  virtue  of  any 
law  or  command,  but  by  the  native,  instinctive 
response  of  the  soul  to  the  Presence  of  the 
Highest.  In  that  supreme  Presence,  and  with 
the  great  divine  interests  looming  before  us  in 
their  majesty,  our  own  personal  interests  seem 
small  and  unworthy  of  mention.  Our  desires 
and  ambitions  for  ourselves  take  on  a  littleness 
far  below  the  importance  they  have  assumed  be¬ 
fore  we  viewed  them  in  the  light  of  the  vision  of 
God.  Can  we,  dare  we,  speak  of  them  in  the 
holy  presence  of  the  Eternal? 

Jesus  says  Yes.  It  is  right.  It  is  His  Will — 
the  Father’s  Will,  that  every  smallest  need  and 
interest  of  ours  shall  be  brought  before  his 
throne.  Here  is  the  breadth  and  the  compre¬ 
hensiveness  of  prayer.  Its  range  is  as  wide  as 
human  vision  and  faith  and  feeling.  Nothing 


[52] 


The  Daily  Bread 


human  is  excluded  from  it.  Life  in  all  its  variety 
of  experience  can  be  bound  about  the  throne  of 
God  by  the  strong  cords  of  prayer.  So  Jesus 
brings  us  by  an  easy  and  normal  passage  from 
the  contemplation  of  the  Name  and  Kingdom 
and  Will  of  the  Heavenly  Father  to  the  sense 
and  consideration  of  the  commonest  need  of  the 
human  family — the  need  of  daily  bread. 

The  transition  from  the  contemplation  of  the 
divine  to  the  consideration  of  the  human  is  easy 
and  normal  for  just  this  reason:  human  inter¬ 
ests  are  divine  interests.  God’s  kingdom  and 
God ’s  will  as  we  may  know  them  are  vitally  con¬ 
cerned  with  human  needs.  In  proportion  as 
God’s  kingdom  comes  and  God’s  will  is  done  in 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven,  human  needs  will  be 
met,  the  deepest  wants  of  the  human  soul  will 
be  satisfied  and  the  commonest  wants  of  the 
human  body  will  be  supplied;  men  will  be 
blessed  in  soul  and  body.  Holiness  and  health 
will  be  the  common  lot.  It  is  entirely  in  keeping 
with  the  thought  of  God  as  Jesus  reveals  him, 
therefore,  to  follow  the  petition,  “Thy  will  be 
done,  ’  ’  with  the  request :  i  1  Give  us  this  day  our 
daily  bread.  ’  ’  There  is  an  intimate  connection 


[53] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


between  the  two.  It  is  in  the  Father’s  will  and 
it  belongs  to  the  Father’s  kingdom  that  we 
should  be  given  our  daily  bread. 

The  daily  bread  represents  all  material 
wants.  It  is  the  first,  fundamental  and  univer¬ 
sal  need  of  the  bodily  life,  and  so  is  represen¬ 
tative  of  all.  Material  need  has  been  the  urgent 
force  that  has  moved  men  to  advance  in  civiliza¬ 
tion.  Progress  from  barbarism  has  ever  been 
marked  by  the  emergence  of  new  material  needs 
and  by  the  acquisition  of  new  means  or  new 
methods  of  supplying  them.  To  some  minds 
material  need  has  been  the  only  force  that  has 
made  for  progress.  Progress  meant  a  better 
food  supply,  better  shelter,  better  clothing,  more 
comfort,  more  convenience,  more  control  of 
natural  forces  and  resources  This  gives  us 
what  is  called  the  economic  interpretation  of 
history,  that  is,  the  explanation  of  the  whole  life 
story  of  man  by  his  efforts  to  secure  material 
goods. 

But  this  is  one  sided.  Other  influences  than 
the  pressure  of  material  need  have  been  active 
in  human  progress  from  the  earliest  known 


[54] 


The  Daily  Beead 


times.  Two,  in  particular,  there  have  been: 
Religion  and  Art. 

No  life  story  of  a  people  is  complete  without 
an  account  of  its  religion.  Go  back  as  far  as 
you  will  in  the  records  that  are  left  to  us,  the 
memorials  of  religion  are  there.  The  memorials 
of  religion  are  everywhere  present  and  they  are 
in  the  foreground.  Religion  was  a  shaping  in¬ 
fluence.  Crude  and  savage  it  might  be,  but  it 
was  never  absent. 

So  with  art.  Men  gave  expression  to  the 
creative  impulses  of  art  before  they  began  to 
build  houses.  On  the  walls  of  the  caves  in  which 
they  made  their  homes,  they  made  pictures, 
often  with  close  accuracy  and  fine  spirit.  The 
creative  spirit  was  astir  within  them  along  with 
the  reaching  forth  after  communion  with  higher 
powers. 

Religion  and  art  minister  to  needs  that  are 
not  material.  They  minister  to  needs  of  the 
spirit  that  cannot  rest  in  mere  material  satis¬ 
faction.  As  long  as  religion  and  art  remain  to 
bear  witness  to  needs  other  than  material,  by 
which  human  progress  has  been  motived  and 


[55] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


shaped,  no  merely  economic  interpretation  of 
the  human  life  story  will  suffice. 

But  while  the  higher,  spiritual  elements  have 
always  been  present  and  are  a  vital  part  of 
human  progress,  the  material  have  their  place. 
While  economic  pressure  will  not  wholly  explain 
civilization,  economic  conditions  have  always 
been  a  matter  of  urgent  concern  to  humanity. 
They  are  the  conditions  of  every  day  life.  They 
are  the  conditions  in  which  our  very  upreacli 
after  God  and  beauty  comes  to  expression  in 
religion  and  art.  And  the  clear  indication  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  is  that  God’s  kingdom  and 
God’s  will  are  intimately  concerned  with  just 
these  conditions.  God  takes  note  of  the  sur¬ 
roundings  in  which  we  pass  our  daily  life.  He 
takes  note  of  the  common  needs  by  which  our 
life  is  affected.  God’s  kingdom  has  to  do  with 
our  entire  personality. 

Jesus  himself  submitted  to  the  economic  con¬ 
ditions  of  his  time.  Before  he  began  his  public 
ministry  he  was  a  part  of  the  industrial  life  of 
Galilee.  He  won  his  daily  bread  by  his  toil  in 
Joseph’s  shop.  We  can  think  of  him  as  making 
tables  and  benches,  and  fashioning  timbers  for 


[56] 


The  Daily  Bread 


houses.  And  we  may  be  sure  that  he  did  his 
work  well.  We  may  be  sure  that  if  he  made  a 
table  or  a  bench,  every  part  was  made  right  and 
fitted  right,  and  that  the  finished  product  was 
thoroughly  good.  His  work  was  honest  work. 

Moreover,  when  he  left  the  shop  and  went  out 
into  the  broad  fields  of  public  work,  giving  men 
the  glad  tidings  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  he  still 
subjected  himself  to  the  economic  conditions  of 
the  land  and  the  time.  When  he  was  tempted 
to  seek  to  demonstrate  his  divine  sonship  by 
commanding  the  desert  stones  to  be  made 
bread,  he  refused.  He  would  have  his  Father 
provide  for  him  in  his  own  way.  Always  for 
himself  and  his  immediate  disciples  he  made 
this  simple  and  direct  connection.  The  Father 
in  heaven  knew  their  needs  and  would  supply 
them,  and  their  hearts  could  be  at  rest. 

This  simple  connection  is  for  us  all  to  make. 
Its  assurance  belongs  to  all  of  God’s  children. 
Ultimately  it  should  underlie  all  our  thought  of 
daily  needs.  But  when  we  come  to  consider  ways 
and  means  by  which  the  good  will  of  our  Father 
is  to  be  fulfilled  in  our  actual  experience,  we  find 
ourselves  confronted  by  an  economic  process 


[57] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


which  is  far  from  simple.  The  daily  bread  comes 
to  us  by  way  of  a  complex  system  of  production, 
transportation,  distribution  and  exchange.  The 
land,  the  rain,  the  sunshine,  and  the  life  pro¬ 
cesses  in  Nature  are  God’s  gifts;  then  human 
labor  and  human  contrivance  enter  and  take 
hold,  and  complexity  results. 

At  every  step  in  the  process  we  depend  upon 
our  fellow  men.  Each  must  do  his  part.  If  there 
is  failure  at  any  point,  the  machinery  of  produc¬ 
tion  and  distribution  is  halted  or  breaks  down 
and  we  fail  to  receive  our  supply.  We  forget  or 
ignore  this  when  all  runs  smoothly,  but  when 
the  break  in  the  process  comes,  we  are  forced  to 
realize  it.  If  the  farmer  is  obliged  to  reduce 
acreage  of  production  because  labor  is  scarce; 
if  the  miner  refuses  to  dig  the  coal  to  feed  the 
fires  in  the  mill ;  if  the  mill  hands  walk  out ;  if 
the  railway  men  tie  up  the  roads  by  a  wide 
spread  strike;  if  anywhere  along  the  line  be¬ 
tween  the  soil  and  the  store  the  process  is 
halted,  you  and  I  feel  it.  That  is  our  economic 
system. 

Moreover,  even  if  the  process  be  not  halted 
and  the  product  is  ready  to  be  delivered  to  us 


[58] 


The  Daily  Beead 


in  return  for  an  equivalent,  what  if  we  have  no 
equivalent  to  offer?  Then,  with  all  its  smooth¬ 
ness  of  working  down  to  us,  the  system  still  fails 
to  supply  us.  So  we  are  concerned  not  only  to 
have  the  system  of  production  and  distribution 
work  smoothly,  but  also  to  have  our  part  in  it, 
so  that  in  some  way  we  shall  be  able  to  offer  the 
equivalent  of  the  product  which  we  need  to 
satisfy  our  own  wants.  All  this,  I  am  sure,  must 
be  so  evident  as  to  need  only  to  be  said  to  be 
recognized  as  true. 

Now  what  is  the  connection  of  all  this  with 
the  kingdom  and  will  of  God?  The  prayer  for 
the  daily  bread  must  mean  that  the  product 
which  in  this  complex  way  is  brought  to  us  shall 
become  ours  for  use;  that  it  shall  be  within 
reach  and  we  shall  be  able  to  secure  it.  Yet  it 
can  not  be  confined  to  your  individual  need  or 
mine.  It  is  our  daily  bread  that  we  ask  God  to 
give,  and  this  means  others  as  well  as  ourselves. 
In  its  complete  application  it  means  the  whole 
human  family.  It  means  right  economic  condi¬ 
tions  for  all  mankind.  It  brings  the  whole 
economic  situation  of  the  world  to  God’s  throne 
in  prayer.  It  seeks  for  the  world  an  economic 

[59] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


life  in  which  the  will  of  God  is  done — in  which 
men  live  and  labor  as  God  would  have  them. 

This  must  be  a  life  in  which  no  one  is 
wronged,  no  one  suffers  and  the  divine  Father¬ 
hood  is  ever  recognized.  It  means  an  economic 
order  in  which  all  of  God’s  children  are  supplied 
with  the  things  that  are  needful;  in  which  the 
human  spirit  is  free  from  bondage  to  material 
necessities.  It  does  not  mean  emancipation 
from  work  indeed,  but  it  means  emancipation 
from  worry.  It  means  work  in  the  spirit  of  cre¬ 
ative  fellowship  and  happy  trust  in  God. 

It  is  a  fact  of  common  observation  that  there 
exists  today  a  widespread  dissatisfaction  with 
our  economic  order.  This  dissatisfaction  per¬ 
vades  the  world.  Many  would  change  the  order 
by  giving  it  a  new  form,  by  radical  modification 
of  property  rights  and  industrial  management. 
Russia  has  undertaken  this  on  a  nationwide 
scale  and  the  world  is  watching  the  experiment. 
Now,  we  must  admit  that  no  particular  economic 
form  possesses  eternal  sacredness.  Changes  of 
form  are  not  necessarily  immoral.  Economic 
forms  are  expedients  for  the  attainment  of  an 
end.  But  when  we  come  to  look  at  the  matter 


[GO] 


The  Daily  Bread 


from  the  standpoint  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  we 
must  see  that  no  mere  form  will  meet  the  need. 
A  new  order  introduced  and  maintained  by 
force  would  leave  us  ultimately  no  better  off 
than  we  are  now. 

What  is  needed  is  primarily  a  new  spirit  in 
our  economic  life.  This  may  or  may  not  bring 
in  new  forms  or  new  relations.  If  the  old  forms 
and  relations  prove  flexible  enough  to  give  full 
expression  to  the  new  spirit,  they  may  be  kept ; 
if  not,  they  may  be  cast  off  and  new  forms  cre¬ 
ated.  If  the  capitalistic  control  of  industry  and 
the  wage  system  are  capable  of  giving  full  play 
to  the  new  spirit  and  the  general  welfare  shall 
be  best  promoted  by  them,  new  forms  will  not  be 
needed;  but  if  these  prove  incapable  of  express¬ 
ing  fully  the  new  spirit,  more  serviceable  forms 
must  be  found. 

The  important  matter  is  that  the  economic 
life  shall  embody  God’s  will  for  the  whole  hu¬ 
man  family.  This  means  that  our  economic  life 
shall  be  so  fashioned  and  conducted  that  we  can 
take  our  part  in  it  without  protest,  without 
grievance,  with  clear  consciences,  with  a  sense 
of  human  fellowship,  with  a  sense  of  real  partic- 

[61] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


ipation  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  with  a  sense 
of  truly  doing  God’s  will  in  earth  as  it  is  done  in 
heaven.  This  new  life  is  to  come  in,  in  place  of 
the  friction,  the  jarring,  the  bitterness,  the  self¬ 
ishness,  the  morbid  class  consciousness,  which 
some  men  foster  and  most  men  feel.  Broad 
human  consciousness  is  to  take  the  place  of  class 
consciousness,  and  instead  of  narrow  national¬ 
ism,  there  must  be  a  broad  internationalism  that 
makes  for  human  good. 

So  the  prayer  for  daily  bread  needs  to  be  not 
only  a  prayer  that  each  of  us  may  have  for  him¬ 
self  the  satisfaction  of  his  wants,  but  far  more 
than  this — a  prayer  for  guidance  that  we  may 
see  the  way  out  of  present  conditions;  for 
strength  of  soul  to  take  the  way  God  shows  us ; 
for  the  Spirit  of  Christ  to  fill  our  hearts  and  the 
hearts  of  others,  that  we  may  take  the  Master’s 
way  with  one  another  in  economic  enterprises. 
Such  a  prayer  will  have  a  great  breadth  of  sym¬ 
pathy,  a  large  sense  of  responsibility,  and  an 
appreciation  of  the  greatness  of  the  task  in 
which,  as  Christ’s  followers,  we  share.  It  will 
be  a  prayer  of  world  wide  import,  worthy  to 


[62] 


The  Daily  Bread 


take  its  place  along  with  onr  prayers  for  the 
coming  of  the  Heavenly  Father’s  kingdom  and 
the  doing  of  his  will  in  earth  as  it  is  done  in 
heaven. 


[63] 


CHAPTER  VI 

Forgiveness  Human  and  Divine 

“Forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  forgive  our  debtors.” 


WE  ARE  familiar  with  the  truth  that  the 
prayer  which  Jesus  taught  his  dis¬ 
ciples  is  meant  for  the  whole  human 
family.  In  a  prayer  of  such  broad  intent,  we 
may  expect  that  only  the  common  human  needs 
will  come  to  expression.  And  this  is  the  case. 
Needs  which  arise  from  local  or  temporary  con¬ 
ditions  or  from  individual  or  group  experi¬ 
ences  are  left  to  find  individual  or  group 
expression,  as  occasion  may  arise.  It  is  note¬ 
worthy,  for  example,  that  this  prayer  bears  no 
trace  of  sympathy  with  one  social  class  rather 
than  another,  or  of  the  influence  of  the  Jewish 
nationalistic  hopes  upon  the  religious  conscious¬ 
ness. 

The  expression  of  individual  or  group  needs 
is  indeed  not  forbidden  or  discouraged.  It  is 
simply  left  out  of  the  common  human  prayer. 

[64] 


Forgiveness  Human  and  Divine 


As  long  as  there  is  freedom,  there  will  be  indi¬ 
viduality  in  religion,  and  nowhere  will  freedom 
and  individuality  find  greater  scope  than  before 
God’s  throne  of  grace.  Jesus  guarantees  this 
when  he  urges  us  to  ask,  seek  and  knock, 
without  specifying  what  we  shall  ask  or  what 
we  shall  seek  or  into  what  experience  we  shall 
endeavor  to  gain  admittance.  Anywhere  within 
the  range  of  God’s  providence  and  grace  we 
may  ask,  seek  and  knock. 

But  while  Jesus  guarantees  freedom  to  our 
individuality,  in  this  way,  when  he  comes  to  deal 
with  the  common  human  needs,  he  specifies. 
First  he  names  the  daily  bread,  and  then  he 
names  forgiveness,  as  a  need  as  common  to  men 
as  is  the  daily  bread.  In  so  many  words,  he  bids 
us  come  before  the  Father  in  heaven  with  the 
petition :  ‘  ‘  Forgive  us.  ’  ’ 

In  thus  teaching  us,  Jesus  not  only  recognizes 
a  common  human  need,  but  sanctions  a  common 
human  impulse.  For  it  is  a  common  human  im¬ 
pulse  to  seek  forgiveness.  The  whole  religious 
history  of  man  shows  this.  It  is  a  pathetic 
story  that  records  the  age  long  efforts  of  men  to 
avert  the  anger  of  their  gods  and  to  secure  their 


[65] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


pardon.  From  time  immemorial  men  have  made 
such  efforts  and  they  are  doing  so  yet.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  their  light  or  their  darkness  they  have 
chosen  their  methods.  By  ritual,  sacrifice,  self 
denial,  self  humiliation,  self  torture,  gifts, 
labors,  fastings,  the  mediation  of  priests,  peni¬ 
tential  discipline,  or  giving  up  life  itself,  they 
have  tried  to  gain  forgiveness.  Jesus  found  all 
this  when  he  came.  The  need  of  forgiveness 
and  the  impulse  to  seek  it  in  varied  ways  was 
no  new  revelation  of  his  day.  It  was  a  common 
possession  of  human  consciousness. 

Jesus  sanctions  the  impulse  as  he  recognizes 
the  need.  He  sanctions  the  impulse,  but  not  all 
the  vagaries  of  religious  conduct  which  have 
sprung  from  it.  He  sheds  his  light  upon  this  as 
he  does  upon  all  the  life  of  man.  He  shows  the 
way  which  men  have  sought  by  such  devious 
paths.  He  tells  us  to  pray:  “Forgive  us.” 

Forgive  us — what!  Jesus  says,  Forgive  us 
our  debts.  Debts  is  the  characteristic  word.  It 
is  Christ’s  term  for  sins,  just  here.  It  is  not 
indeed  his  only  term  for  sins,  but  it  is  the  one 
he  has  distinctly  chosen  to  put  into  this  prayer 
he  has  taught  us;  it  is  the  term  he  has  chosen 


[66] 


Forgiveness  Human  and  Divine 


wherewith  to  point  out  the  common  need  of  for¬ 
giveness.  There  is  a  clear  note  of  originality 
in  this.  So  we  shall  do  well  to  get  the  full  import 
of  the  term  as  applied  to  sins. 

Sin  is  not  a  pleasant  subject  to  contemplate, 
and  in  some  circles  it  is  bad  form  to  introduce  it 
— that  is  it  is  bad  form  to  introduce  it  as  a  sub¬ 
ject  of  discourse,  albeit  it  may  be  well  estab¬ 
lished  in  those  same  circles  as  a  fact  of  experi¬ 
ence.  The  fact  is,  a  self  respecting  person  dis¬ 
likes  to  think  of  himself  as  really  and  actually  a 
sinner.  One  may  accept  the  proposition  as  a 
Bible  teaching — as  a  theological  postulate — 
without  vigorous  opposition ;  hut  when  it  comes 
to  applying  the  proposition  to  oneself  as  a  fact 
to  he  faced — as  a  concrete,  dismal  fact,  one  re¬ 
coils  from  it.  How  hard  we  labor  to  excuse  our¬ 
selves  in  any  concrete  case  of  transgression! 
How  we  labor  to  convince  ourselves,  and  if  oc¬ 
casion  arise,  how  we  labor  to  convince  others, 
that  we  were  not  in  the  wrong — that  the  thing 
we  said  or  did  was  not  wrong — that  our  motive 
was  good,  that  we  meant  no  harm,  that  we  were 
misunderstood,  that  we  could  not  help  doing  as 
we  did,  that  we  took  the  best  course  in  the 


[67] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


circumstances — that  somehow  or  other  we  were 
not  to  blame ! 

There  is  something  within  us  which  makes  us 
want  to  assert  and  maintain  our  integrity.  We 
recoil  from  the  thought  of  ourselves  as  sinners. 
However  much  our  theology  may  require  us  to 
avow  our  depravity,  we  are  violently  averse  to 
acknowledging  any  evidence  of  it  in  definite  mis¬ 
doing.  It  is  one  of  the  contradictions  of  our 
human  nature  that  along  with  the  persistent 
seeking  of  forgiveness  which  has  marked  the 
whole  course  of  religion  there  has  been  this 
marked  repugnance  to  regarding  ourselves  as 
sinners  in  any  concrete  and  explicit  way.  But 
Jesus  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  facts  when 
he  bids  us  pray :  1  6  Forgive  us  our  debts. 1 9  For 
Jesus  always  deals  with  realities. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  Master’s  word,  debts , 
as  applied  to  sins.  Debt  is  a  commercial  term. 
It  has  a  definite  meaning  in  common  business 
speech.  And  Jesus  uses  business  speech — the 
speech  of  the  market  place — in  much  of  his 
teaching.  He  uses  this,  in  place  of  technical 
religious  language,  to  bring  his  truth  close  to 
the  minds  of  the  people.  Debt  as  a  business 


[68] 


Forgiveness  Human  and  Divine 


term  means  something  owed.  Onr  English  word, 
debt,  comes  directly  from  a  Latin  word  meaning 
owe.  And  onr  word,  ought,  comes  from  onr 
word,  oive.  What  I  ought  is  what  I  owed  or 
what  I  owe.  Ought  is  owe.  And  debt  is  owed. 
In  other  words,  debt  is  unfulfilled  obligation. 

Now  lift  the  word  into  the  moral  sphere.  Or, 
if  you  choose,  expand  its  realm  so  that  it  coin¬ 
cides  with  the  moral  sphere.  The  commercial 
will  be  included,  for  certainly  we  can  not  afford 
to  put  morality  in  a  department  of  life  which 
business  may  not  enter,  and  certainly  we  can  not 
afford  to  put  business  in  a  department  of  life 
which  morals  may  not  enter.  The  moral  sphere 
includes,  or  ought  to  include,  the  commercial; 
but  it  is  larger.  There  are  matters  of  morals 
which  are  not  matters  of  business,  albeit  there 
should  be  no  matters  of  business  which  are  not 
also  matters  of  morals. 

Now  expand  your  conception  of  debt  to  coin¬ 
cide  with  all  of  moral  obligation.  Then  you  get 
our  Lord’s  meaning.  Debt  is  the  unfulfilled 
moral  obligation.  It  is  unfulfilled  moral  obliga¬ 
tion  of  every  kind.  Now,  is  not  this  a  large 
enough  conception  to  include  all  that  we  mean 


[69] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


when  we  speak  of  sin?  Jesns  certainly  makes  it 
so.  And  when  we  reflect,  we  shall  see  that  every¬ 
thing  that  can  truly  he  called  sin  is  a  failure  to 
fulfill  some  moral  obligation.  Every  wrong  is  a 
denied  right.  Every  wrong  is  a  failure  or  a  re¬ 
fusal  or  a  neglect,  to  respect  or  give  or  maintain 
a  right. 

So  Jesus  regards  sin  not  simply  as  the  break¬ 
ing  of  a  law,  or  the  disobeying  of  a  command, 
but  as  something  deeper.  He  regards  sin  as  the 
withholding  of  a  right ;  as  the  failure  to  render 
the  thing  that  is  owed.  Transgression  of  God’s 
law  is  sin  because  we  owe  God  our  obedience. 
Injury  to  a  fellow  man  is  sin  because  we  owe 
him  the  recognition  of  his  rights.  That  is, 
Jesus  looks  at  sin  from  the  standpoint  of  obliga¬ 
tion  rather  than  that  of  simple  command.  It 
has  to  do  with  our  relation  to  our  Father  in 
heaven  and  our  relation  to  our  brother  men  on 
the  earth,  and  not  merely  to  government  and 
law,  human  or  divine. 

Now,  with  this  conception  of  sin,  what  shall 
we  say  of  ourselves  ?  Shall  we  need  to  find  dis¬ 
tinct  flaws  in  our  integrity,  distinct  stains  upon 
our  purity  of  purpose  and  deed,  distinct  acts  of 


[70] 


Forgiveness  Human  and  Divine 


wrong,  in  order  to  see  ourselves  in  need  of  for¬ 
giveness  ?  What  if  the  day  has  gone  by  with  no 
outburst  of  passion,  with  no  swerving  from 
truth,  with  no  dishonest  or  unrighteous  act;  is 
there  no  unfulfilled  obligation  to  God  or  man? 
Can  we  say  that  we  owe  nothing  to  him  who 
loves  us  with  everlasting  love,  who  gives  us  all 
things,  who  holds  us  in  life  and  calls  us  his  chil¬ 
dren?  Have  we  paid  him?  Have  we  earned 
what  we  get  from  him?  Even  though  we  have 
been  thankful  and  have  sought  to  be  obedient, 
aye,  consecrated  to  his  service,  do  we  owe  him 
nothing  now?  Nay,  still  there  is  debt,  debt  un¬ 
measured. 

What  shall  we  say  about  this  indebtedness? 
In  business  we  expect  debts  to  be  paid.  If  they 
are  not  paid,  business  suffers.  Debits  are  per¬ 
mitted  because  of  the  expectation  that  in  time 
they  will  be  balanced  by  credits.  What  about 
debits  and  credits  in  our  relations  with  God? 
From  our  Lord’s  teaching  I  gather  that  our  re¬ 
lations  with  God  are  not  to  be  put  on  the  com¬ 
mercial  plane.  Jesus  uses  the  commercial  term 
to  bring  the  obligation  into  sharp  outline,  but  he 
couples  it  with  a  word  which  represents  a 


[71] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


different  procedure  from  the  one  usually  taken 
in  business. 

In  business  debts  are  to  be  paid.  If  they  are 
not  paid  voluntarily,  measures  are  taken  to  col¬ 
lect  them.  But  with  God,  debts  are  to  be  forgiven. 
Our  relations  with  God  are  on  another  plane 
than  that  of  business,  in  which  you  give  so  much 
for  so  much,  quid  pro  quo ,  so  much  commodity, 
so  much  service,  for  so  much  money,  to  be  given 
again  for  so  much  commodity  or  so  much  ser¬ 
vice.  Our  relation  to  God  is  that  of  children  to 
the  Heavenly  Father ;  and  the  Heavenly  Father 
gives  and  forgives. 

Now  what  is  forgiveness?  This  too  must  be 
seen  in  the  light  of  God’s  Fatherhood.  And  if 
we  view  it  in  this  light,  we  must  see  that  it  is  not 
just  the  same  thing  as  the  pardoning  of  a  crimi¬ 
nal  by  executive  clemency,  which  is  one  of  the 
ways  in  which  it  has  frequently  been  repre¬ 
sented.  It  is  noteworthy  that  with  all  our  Lord’s 
freedom  and  boldness  of  illustration,  he  never 
uses  the  illustration  of  the  pardoned  criminal  to 
teach  the  forgiveness  of  sin.  The  pardon  of  a 
criminal  means  simply  release  from  the  penalty 
affixed  to  the  violation  of  law.  But  God’s  for- 


[72] 


Forgiveness  Human  and  Divine 


giveness  is  something  higher  than  freeing  us 
from  the  penalty  of  sin. 

God’s  forgiveness  is  keeping  us  in  fellowship 
with  him  as  his  children,  notwithstanding  our 
sins — our  unfulfilled  obligations.  When  we  ask 
for  forgiveness,  as  Jesus  teaches  us  to  do,  what 
we  seek  and  what  God  is  willing  to  give  is  just 
this: — that  despite  our  failures  to  render  the 
Heavenly  Father  what  we  owe  him,  we  shall  not 
be  treated  as  debtors,  under  an  ever  growing 
burden  which  we  shall  never  be  able  to  cast  off ; 
but  we  shall  be  and  shall  continue  to  be  God’s 
loved  children,  close  to  his  heart,  happy  in  his 
fellowship  and  secure  in  his  care ;  and  that  G  od 
will  ever  continue  to  deal  with  us,  not  on  the 
principle  of  debt  and  payment,  but  on  the  prin¬ 
ciple  of  grace  and  freedom. 

So  far  we  have  dealt  with  divine  forgiveness, 
which  we  need  and  seek.  Now  we  come  to  the 
human  correlate.  “As  we  forgive  our  debtors.” 
Jesus  says,  Ask  God  to  forgive  you  as  you  for¬ 
give  others.  Continue  to  understand  debtors  in 
the  moral  sense  rather  than  the  business  sense. 
Collect  from  your  business  debtors  and  forgive 
your  moral  debtors,  but  forgive  them  as  you 


[73] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


ask  God  to  forgive  you.  If  any  one  has  failed 
in  his  moral  obligation  to  you;  if  he  has  failed 
in  any  way  to  do  what  was  right  by  you ;  forgive 
him  and  make  that  forgiveness  the  plea  that  you 
present  to  God  when  you  ask  him  to  forgive  you. 

Sounds  hard,  does  it  not?  But  clearly  this  is 
the  Master’s  teaching.  He  does  not  say  that  we 
are  to  use  any  plea  of  weakness,  or  of  regret,  or 
of  attitude  of  any  kind  towards  our  own  sins. 
He  does  not  bid  us  say,  “  Forgive  us  because  we 
are  sorry;  forgive  us  because  we  promise  not  to 
do  it  again;  forgive  us  because  we  are  weak  and 
sinful  and  yield  so  readily;  forgive  us  because 
we  were  led  astray;  forgive  us  because  we  re¬ 
pent.”  He  bids  us  present  just  this  one  plea: 
“Forgive  us,  as  we  forgive.”  This  looks  as 
though  human  forgiveness  were  the  measure 
and  the  condition  of  divine  forgiveness. 

Clearly  Jesus  has  a  reason  for  putting  the 
matter  of  forgiveness  before  us  in  this  way. 
There  must  be  a  vital  principle  in  his  method. 
Here  is  the  truth:  Jesus  wishes  to  release  a 
power  which  dwells  in  us,  which  is  able  to  trans¬ 
form  relations  between  men.  There  resides  in 
us  a  power  of  forgiveness  which  if  it  is  allowed 

[74] 


Forgiveness  Human  and  Divine 


to  come  to  expression  will  obliterate  the  discord 
of  the  world  and  bind  the  human  family  to¬ 
gether  in  happy  fellowship.  This  power  is  the 
gift  of  God.  It  is  kept  down  by  fear  and  dis¬ 
trust.  Instead  of  its  manifestations  there  con¬ 
stantly  appears  the  spirit  of  revenge  and  hatred 
and  continued  strife.  Every  one  asserts  his 
rights,  and  cherishes  his  grievances  and 
grudges,  and  magnifies  his  wrongs. 

Because  the  power  of  forgiveness  is  suppress¬ 
ed,  the  individual  consciousness  and  the  group 
consciousness  and  the  national  consciousness 
and  the  world  consciousness  are  poisoned,  prog¬ 
ress  is  stayed,  and  the  tale  of  human  suffering 
grows  each  day.  But  though  suppressed,  the 
power  of  forgiveness  persists.  Below  all  the 
unhappy  human  relations,  it  still  is  latent  and 
needs  only  to  be  released  to  bring  peace  where 
now  there  is  strife,  to  awaken  love  where  now 
there  is  hatred,  to  bring  men  to  clasp  hands  as 
friends  where  now  they  stand  apart  as  foes. 

The  power  is  in  us  by  the  gift  of  God  and 
Jesus  seeks  to  call  it  into  exercise.  The  power 
of  human  forgiveness  is  a  reflection  and  a 


[75] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


witness  of  the  power  of  divine  forgiveness.  Be¬ 
cause  it  is  in  us  we  know  that  it  is  in  God.  Be¬ 
cause  God  has  given  it  to  us,  we  know  that  he 
has  it  in  himself.  We  know  that  when  we  listen 
to  the  voice  of  God  within  us  we  are  prompted 
to  forgiveness  rather  than  revenge.  And  the 
more  we  yield  to  that  divine  voice  and  forgive 
fully  and  freely,  the  more  we  can  believe  in  the 
full  and  free  forgiveness  of  God.  And  the  less 
we  yield  to  the  divine  voice  and  so  withhold  our 
forgiveness  from  others,  the  less  do  we  really 
believe  and  claim  the  forgiveness  of  God. 

Jesus  would  have  us  overcome  our  fear  of  for¬ 
giving  others.  He  would  have  us  forego  all  re¬ 
venges.  He  would  have  us  cleanse  our  hearts 
of  all  desire  of  revenge  and  all  ill  will.  He  would 
have  us  give  full  play  to  the  divine  impulse  of 
forgiveness.  He  would  have  us  practice  this 
and  teach  it  to  the  world  in  matters  small  and 
great.  He  would  have  us  practice  and  teach  it 
in  all  human  relations.  He  would  assure  us  that 
the  practice  of  forgiveness  is  safe;  that  it  makes 
everywhere  for  human  well  being;  that  it  is  an 
essential  part  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 


[76] 


Forgiveness  Human  and  Divine 


And  he  would  assure  us  that  by  this  practice  we 
shall  come  into  true  and  ever  growing  fellow¬ 
ship  with  our  Father  who  is  in  Heaven. 


[77] 


CHAPTER  VII 
Temptation  and  Deliverance 
“Lead  Us  not  Into  Temptation;  but  Deliver  Us  from  Evil” 

WE  HAVE  reached  the  last  petition  of 
the  Lord’s  Prayer.  As  we  have  con¬ 
sidered  the  earlier  petitions,  we  have 
found  that  each  has  its  own  contribution  to  make 
to  our  understanding  of  prayer,  as  Jesus  pre¬ 
sents  it.  Each  petition  illumines  our  common 
relationship  to  God,  the  Heavenly  Father,  or 
brings  to  expression  a  need  which  we  all  share. 
Each  petition,  therefore,  is  calculated  to 
strengthen  our  sense  of  common  relationship 
and  common  need,  and  so  to  bind  us  in  fellow¬ 
ship  before  our  Father’s  throne. 

This  sense  of  relationship  and  fellowship  of 
need  with  one  another  are  to  abide  with  us. 
They  are  possessions  of  the  soul  to  be  held  con¬ 
stantly.  But  the  expression  of  this  relationship 
and  these  common  needs  in  the  form  of  prayer 
is  a  matter  of  occasions.  While  we  may  have 
and  should  have  the  spirit  of  prayer  as  a  con- 


[78] 


Temptation  and  Deliverance 


tinuous  experience,  the  actual  practice  of  pray¬ 
er  belongs  to  certain  times.  Frequent  times 
these  should  be,  but  still  they  are  definite  hours 
or  days.  However  rapt  we  may  be  in  our  devo¬ 
tions,  they  cannot  always  occupy  us.  The  time 
comes  when  we  must  leave  the  throne  of  grace 
and  go  forth  to  engage  in  the  common  pursuits 
of  life.  We  must  mingle  with  our  fellows  and 
join  in  their  activities,  and  face  the  world  as  it 
is.  In  view  of  this  fact,  we  can  see  the  signifi¬ 
cance  of  making  this  the  concluding  petition  of 
the  Prayer :  1  ‘  And  lead  us  not  into  temptation ; 
but  deliver  us  from  evil.” 

Temptation  is  a  common  fact  of  everyday  life. 
It  comes  from  many  sources  and  has  many  chan¬ 
nels  of  approach.  No  one  is  exempt  from  it. 
Jesus  himself  was  in  all  points  tempted  like  as 
we  are,  yet  without  sin. 

Temptation  is  not  sin.  It  is  a  testing  of  us  to 
see  whether  we  will  sin.  It  is  an  attempt  upon 
our  moral  firmness  to  make  us  sin,  if  this  may 
be.  It  is  an  attack,  but  not  necessarily  conquest. 
It  is  an  assault,  but  not  necessarily  a  capture. 
It  is  the  presentation  of  opportunity,  but  not 
necessarily  our  availing  of  the  opportunity.  In- 


[79] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


deed  it  is  our  opportunity  for  victory  or  defeat. 
It  is  our  opportunity  to  stand  or  fall. 

Temptation  has  no  limits  of  time  or  place.  It 
may  come  in  the  crowd,  but  it  is  not  confined  to 
the  crowd.  It  may  come  in  the  group,  but  it  is 
not  confined  to  the  group.  It  may  come  in  the 
thick  of  life’s  activities,  where  human  contacts 
multiply  and  the  influence  of  other  personalities 
bears  hard  upon  us ;  but  it  may  come  as  well  in 
the  solitude,  when  we  are  left  without  any  com¬ 
panionship  other  than  our  own  thoughts.  It 
may  come  to  us  in  our  homes,  at  our  daily  tasks, 
aye,  in  the  very  house  of  God.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  immunity  from  temptation  through  the 
circumstances  of  time,  place,  or  outward  con¬ 
dition.  Certain  forms  of  temptation  may  be 
precluded  by  circumstances  of  time  and  place, 
but  others  will  come. 

Temptation  is  as  varied  as  sin.  As  there  are 
many  forms  of  sin,  so  are  there  many  forms  of 
temptation.  The  fact  that  we  are  not  tempted 
in  some  directions  does  not  mean  that  we  are 
not  tempted  at  all.  The  form  of  our  tempta¬ 
tions  will  vary  according  to  our  spiritual  de¬ 
velopment  or  our  physical  constitution  or  con- 


180] 


Temptation  and  Deliverance 


dition  or  our  stage  of  maturity.  It  will  vary 
according  to  our  ambitions  and  affections;  ac¬ 
cording  to  our  sensitiveness  to  one  appeal  or 
another ;  according  to  our  training  or  tempera¬ 
ment  ;  according  to  all  the  experiences  that  have 
left  their  imprint  upon  us;  according  to  the 
whole  content  of  the  life  within  us. 

Temptation  came  to  Jesus  through  his  high¬ 
est  and  holiest  consciousness — his  consciousness 
of  divine  Sonship.  In  all  the  glow  and  gladness 
and  glory  of  that  wondrous  consciousness, 
awakened  or  reinforced  and  confirmed  at  his 
Baptism,  the  suggestion  came  to  him  to  give 
that  consciousness  unworthy  expression.  He 
was  tempted  to  show  himself  the  Son  of  God  in 
ways  not  ordered  by  the  Father.  He  had  con¬ 
quered  all  baser  forms  of  temptation.  He  had 
passed  through  the  days  of  childhood  and  boy¬ 
hood  and  adolescence  and  dawning  manhood 
with  unsullied  soul.  He  was  master  of  himself — 
master  of  his  body  and  his  mind.  He  had  come 
unscathed  through  the  fires  which  we  all  must 
pass  through  on  the  way  to  maturity.  Then 
temptation  met  him  in  a  form  so  subtle  that  it 
seems  to  us  almost  imaginary,  yet  to  him  it  was 


[81] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


so  real  as  to  bring  upon  him  a  veritable  conflict 
of  soul — a  deadly  combat  with  the  powers  of 
evil. 

So,  to  many  a  one  who  has  conquered  tempta¬ 
tion  to  the  baser  and  more  repulsive  sins,  so  that 
they  no  longer  have  any  appeal  to  him,  tempta¬ 
tion  comes  in  more  subtle  and  insidious  forms 
and  has  all  the  reality  of  an  attack  upon  his  in¬ 
tegrity  of  soul. 

We  can  be  tempted  through  anything.  The 
channel  of  temptation  is  our  desire.  In  what¬ 
ever  direction  our  desires  go  out,  in  that  direc¬ 
tion  are  we  open  to  temptation.  If  one  desires 
money,  he  can  be  tempted  through  money.  If  he 
desires  popularity,  he  can  be  tempted  through 
popularity.  If  he  desires  prominence,  he  can  be 
tempted  through  prominence.  If  he  desires 
position,  he  can  be  tempted  through  position. 
If  he  desires  power,  he  can  be  tempted  through 
power.  If  he  desires  pleasure,  he  can  be  tempt¬ 
ed  through  pleasure.  And  so  on  throughout  the 
long  catalogue  of  human  desires.  Whatever  one 
desires  constitutes  an  avenue  of  approach  for 
temptation.  Shrewd  and  unscrupulous  men 

[82] 


Temptation  and  Deliverance 


know  this  and  act  upon  it  in  their  efforts  to  use 
other  men  for  their  purposes. 

Let  us  understand,  however,  that  desire  may 
be  either  right  or  wrong  in  itself.  Yet  even  a 
desire  that  is  right  in  itself,  a  desire  for  a  thing 
that  is  innocent,  may  become  the  occasion  of 
temptation.  There  may  be  a  temptation  to 
gratify  in  a  wrong  way  the  desire  for  the  thing 
that  is  innocent  in  itself.  Some  of  the  strongest 
and  most  subtle  temptations  are  of  this  charac¬ 
ter.  The  thing  we  want  is  right.  In  itself  it  is 
not  forbidden.  It  is  not  harmful.  It  is  one  of 
the  goods  of  life.  But  the  means  proposed  to 
secure  the  good  thing  is  a  forbidden  means.  To 
gratify  desire  in  the  way  suggested  would  be 
wrong,  though  the  thing  desired  is  not  wrong. 
The  temptation  to  such  gratification  comes  all 
along  the  ways  of  life.  All  normal  desires  may 
be  made  the  channels  of  temptation. 

As  to  a  wrong  desire,  that  is,  the  desire  of  a 
thing  that  is  wrong  in  itself,  it  is  obvious  that 
the  appeal  to  such  a  desire  is  a  distinct  tempta¬ 
tion  to  wrong  doing.  Right  desires  gratified  in 
a  way  that  is  contrary  to  God  ’s  will,  and  wrong 


[83] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


desires  gratified  instead  of  suppressed,  are  both 
to  be  regarded  as  yieldings  to  temptation. 

But  Jesus  teaches  us  to  say  to  God:  “Lead  us 
not  into  temptation.”  This  awakens  the  ques¬ 
tion,  What  part  has  God  in  our  temptations? 
Why  ask  him  not  to  lead  us  into  them?  This  is 
a  question  over  which  many  minds  have  puzzled, 
when  they  have  come  to  this  petition  of  the 
Lord’s  Prayer. 

Certainly  it  must  be  said  that  God  tempts  no 
man.  So  the  New  Testament  clearly  teaches. 
While  God  may  subject  us  to  testing  by  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  of  life,  he  never  tempts  any  one,  in 
the  sense  of  endeavoring  to  induce  him  to  sin. 
Such  a  thought  is  utterly  abhorrent  to  the 
character  of  God.  It  is  utterly  incompatible 
with  his  holiness. 

What  part  then  has  God  in  our  temptation? 
Temptation  arises  from  circumstances.  God 
orders  life.  Under  his  Providence  we  are  where 
we  are.  Granted  that  we  are  in  some  degree 
responsible  for  being  where  we  are.  We  have 
chosen,  as  the  opportunity  of  choosing  has  come 
to  us.  Perhaps  by  our  wisdom,  perhaps  by  our 
unwisdom,  we  have  made  the  choice.  Perhaps 


[84] 


Temptation  and  Deliverance 


by  our  energy  and  enterprise,  perhaps  by  our 
lack  of  these ;  perhaps  by  our  grasping,  perhaps 
by  our  neglecting  or  refusing  to  grasp  the  op¬ 
portunity  that  has  knocked  at  our  door ;  perhaps 
because  we  have  been  clear  sighted,  perhaps  be¬ 
cause  we  have  been  blind,  we  have  taken  or 
missed  the  tide  that  leads  on  to  fortune.  In 
either  case,  whatever  our  measure  of  credit  or 
discredit,  God  has  kept  his  hold  on  our  life. 

All  the  varied  circumstances  which  are  ours 
under  God’s  sovereignity  may  be  avenues  of 
temptation.  Prosperity  has  its  temptation. 
Success  may  tempt.  To  be  selfish  in  prosperity ; 
to  be  proud;  to  be  contemptuous  of  those  who 
have  not  prospered;  to  be  unsympathetic;  to 
consider  that  we  are  superior  because  we  have 
prospered — how  easy  all  this  is  and  how  readily 
men  are  tempted  to  it !  To  worship  success ;  to 
confound  success  with  merit;  to  condone  wrong 
doing  in  the  successful;  to  look  down  on  those 
whom  we  judge  to  have  failed;  all  this  too  is 
easy  and  in  this  direction  temptation  enters 
again  and  again. 

On  the  other  hand,  adversity  has  its  own 
temptations,  equally  frequent  and  powerful 


[85] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


with  those  of  prosperity.  To  be  rebellious;  to 
be  embittered;  to  be  envious;  to  belittle  those 
who  prosper;  to  be  over-sensitive;  to  imagine 
ourselves  injured — all  these  are  the  possibilities 
of  adversity,  and  along  all  these  lines  tempta¬ 
tion  comes.  So  it  is  that  every  position  and 
relation  and  condition  in  life  has  its  own  tempta¬ 
tions. 

And  now,  because  temptation  comes  through 
all  these  channels,  Jesus  teaches  us  to  make 
appeal  to  God  that  the  things  he  orders  for  us 
may  not  prove  the  occasion  of  our  moral  down¬ 
fall.  “Lead  us  not  into  temptation’ ’  means 
then:  “Let  not  the  gifts  Thou  hast  bestowed 
upon  us  or  the  circumstances  of  life  as  Thou 
hast  permitted  them,  be  to  us  occasions  of  sin.” 

As  a  personal  prayer,  this  implies  a  certain 
humility  and  self  distrust.  It  is  the  opposite  of 
presumption,  of  boasting,  of  carelessness,  of 
moral  self  sufficiency.  It  is  the  opposite  of  the 
attitude  which  says,  “Life  has  no  snares  for  me. 
I  can  go  forth  and  be  sure  that  I  shall  not  fall. 
I  have  no  fear  of  sin.  I  will  take  the  risk.  My 
character  is  secure.”  It  is  rather  the  attitude 
which  says:  “I  know  that  everywhere  tempta- 

[86] 


Temptation  and  Deliverance 


tion  may  assail  me.  I  pray  God  that  nothing  he 
sends  to  me  and  no  place  he  assigns  me  may  be 
used  by  the  tempter  to  draw  me  into  sin. ’ ’  This 
is  a  recognition  of  the  fact  of  moral  attack  and 
the  summoning  of  divine  aid  to  sustain  us  under 
it. 

But  this  prayer  is  more  than  personal.  Like 
the  other  petitions  the  Master  taught,  it  is 
social,  and  so  is  sympathetic.  It  includes  in  its 
intent  all  who  may  be  subject  to  temptation. 
Temptation  is  the  common  lot.  We  see  the 
faults  of  others ;  let  us  also  realize  that  they  are 
tempted.  With  this  realization,  the  prayer 
against  temptation  includes  our  fellows  as  well 
as  ourselves.  We  ask  for  others,  as  well  as  for 
ourselves,  that  God’s  gifts,  the  bodies  and  the 
minds,  the  affections  and  the  desires,  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  and  the  possessions  he  has  given  to 
our  humanity,  may  not  be  made  the  occasion  of 
sin.  Here  too  we  have  a  great  human  prayer 
that  draws  us  into  sympathy  with  all  our  kind. 

Now,  to  the  petition  that  God’s  gifts  and 
orderings  may  not  become  to  us  the  occasion  of 
sin,  Jesus  bids  us  add  the  words:  “Deliver  us 
from  evil.”  Here  is  the  recognition  of  God  as 


[87] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


the  supreme  moral  deliverer.  This  is  the  gospel 
for  the  tempted.  God  has  the  power  to  deliver 
us  from  evil  so  that  we  shall  not  be  overborne 
by  temptation.  He  can  deliver  us  by  all  the 
ways  of  his  grace.  He  can  keep  us  alert  and 
sensitive  to  the  suggestions  of  sin.  He  can 
strengthen  in  us  the  purpose  of  right,  so  that  we 
shall  not  be  overcome.  He  can  fill  us  with  good 
so  that  evil  can  not  enter.  He  can  give  us  an 
inflow  of  power  which  shall  well  up  within  us  in 
the  hour  of  crisis.  He  can  make  us  keen  to  per¬ 
ceive  the  right  course  and  swift  to  follow  it. 
Deliverance  from  evil  must  come  from  within 
ourselves  rather  than  from  outward  conditions, 
but  within  us,  the  power  is  of  God. 

The  deliverance  from  evil  which  Jesus  bids  us 
ask  of  God,  then,  is  a  gift  of  inner  strength.  It 
is  such  a  fortifying  of  holy  purpose  within  us 
as  shall  enable  us  to  repel  every  suggestion  of 
evil.  Positive,  rock  firm  purpose  of  righteous¬ 
ness  is  the  condition  of  moral  safety.  To  the 
forming  and  sustaining  of  such  a  purpose  we 
summon  all  our  moral  energies,  all  our  self  dis¬ 
cipline,  all  our  strength  of  will ;  and  more  than 
this,  we  invoke  the  inflow  of  the  strength  of  God, 


[88] 


Temptation  and  Deliverance 


a  very  stream  of  divine  life  within  ns  that  shall 
constantly  renew  and  invigorate  our  energies, 
so  that  our  purpose  shall  not  fail. 

Deliverance  from  evil  is  thus  an  inner  experi¬ 
ence  that  comes  through  personal  union  with 
God  in  the  depths  of  the  soul.  In  the  realm 
which  lies  deeper  than  our  conscious  life,  this 
deliverance  comes;  hut  it  records  itself  in  ex¬ 
perience  as  we  find  our  purpose  of  righteous¬ 
ness  kept  firm  and  controlling  amidst  all  the 
assaults  of  temptation.  This  experience  is  open 
to  us  all.  It  is  meant  for  us.  We  shall  be 
tempted,  but  we  need  not  yield.  Life  may  be 
for  us  a  succession  of  moral  victories.  Jesus 
means  this  when  he  bids  us  pray  thus  to  the 
Father  in  heaven. 

In  concluding  this  study  of  the  Prayer  that 
Jesus  taught,  let  me  emphasize  one  truth.  It 
is  this :  Every  petition  in  this  prayer  is  to  be 
offered  in  firm  and  confident  faith  that  it  will  be 
fulfilled.  All  are  in  God’s  power  and  in  God’s 
will  for  us.  It  is  in  the  power  and  will  of  God 
to  do  these  things  for  us  or  to  release  energies 
within  us  by  which  we  shall  do  them  for  our¬ 
selves,  so  that  the  fulfillment  of  these  petitions 


[89] 


The  Prayer  That  Jesus  Taught 


shall  be  the  fashion  of  our  life.  It  is  in  the 
power  and  will  of  God  that  we  shall  know  him 
as  our  Father  and  ourselves  as  his  children; 
that  we  shall  hallow  his  Name  in  reverent  re¬ 
cognition  of  all  that  is  divine;  that  we  shall 
realize  his  kingdom  in  ourselves  and  shall  be 
co-workers  with  him  in  extending  it  in  the 
world ;  that  we  shall  do  his  will  in  earth  as  it  is 
done  in  heaven;  that  we  shall  have  our  daily 
bread  as  his  gift  of  love ;  that  we  shall  be  forgiv¬ 
ing  and  forgiven ;  that  under  his  leading  and  by 
his  grace  we  shall  be  kept  strong  in  spirit  and 
shall  find  the  very  occasions  of  temptation  the 
scenes  of  glorious  deliverance. 

His  is  the  kingdom.  His  is  the  power.  To 
his  Name  be  the  glory. 


[90] 


